Trial Accounts and You

[Flutter]

There's one problem with that. If you limit them to TC only, then they have no incentive to continue the account they've started since they can't transfer a character from TC to any other shard, thus whatever time they'd invested was wasted. The point of trial accounts is to give someone the chance to get hooked on the game.

I didn't know trial accounts could be continued? (never had one)

I look at it the other way, the majority of this thread is saying oh they shouldn't be able to have this and that and limiting pretty much every system, well if you do that their not going to experience most of the game.
If their on TC they can experience it all but its of no real value there, but they can at least see what working at any of these systems can reward them with.

There's an easy solution to that. Just make it so the restrictions are on production shards only and make test shard a restriction-free-zone.
Making the cheaters pay to cheat isn't going to solve the 3rd party program problems anyway.

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

Making the cheaters pay to cheat isn't going to solve the 3rd party program problems anyway.

This thread isn't about 3rd party programs or preventing their use. Maybe someday (hopefully) there will be a thread where Draconi will post that they have that in place too... for today he has what he's posted... which is a great first step. Thanks Devs!

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

Making the cheaters pay to cheat isn't going to solve the 3rd party program problems anyway.

Sadly, she is right there...but it will go a long way in ending resource and gold farming.

 

[HD2300]

Making the cheaters pay to cheat isn't going to solve the 3rd party program problems anyway.

Sadly, she is right there...but it will go a long way in ending resource and gold farming.

People are quitting because of 3rd party programs. Stop the 3rd party programs, and many of the resource/gold/bod/spawn cam scripting problems from trial and paying accounts will be solved.

I suggest EA kindly asks the Easy program creator to stop. If he doesnt sue him for loss of revenues. I believe there is a precedent. Another option would be to change the encrypyion everyday. Another option would be Punkbuster. WAR has it, so why doesnt UO.

 

[ake]

Better to restrict trial accounts on production shards and no restrictions (allow anything) on TC only.

&

I like that idea, limit them to TC. Though is there always one up now?

I'm glad that you all have a cable connection, but from some countries TC is unplayable.

No Transcendence Scrolls
No PowerScrolls
No Quests beyond Haven
No Housing
No Vendors
BOD limitations, similar to what Kellgory expressed
No Commodity Deed Creation
No Holiday Rewards
No Factions
No Guilds
No Shard Transfers
No access to most recent publish 'desirable' (Replica Drops currently, as example)
Auto Exorcism back to Haven upon Death, ghosts cannot roam beyond Haven
Virtue Level gain cap at first tier

Houses is part of the game and almost all the new like test it to eliminate the problem imo is enough collapse the house without waiting the 90 days.

Guilds... Ress... and so on... you have not thought that perhaps the trial account can be used to show the game to RL friends.

1. Not be able to Deed commodities you have.
2. Not be able to redeam Commodity deeds.
3. Not be able to train a skill past say 80.0 or 85.0 or 90.0

for the last reason allow a vet player to give them an advanced char token or a CD for arrow/bolts

you should keep the focus on the credit cards owners and make cross-checks to see how many trialcode are bind to a CC and so on you probaly know this better than me.

my 2c

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

&


for the last reason allow a vet player to give them an advanced char token or a CD for arrow/bolts

you should keep the focus on the credit cards owners and make cross-checks to see how many trialcode are bind to a CC and so on you probaly know this better than me.

my 2c

As far as an Advance Char Token, if they want to use a Token, IMHO it should be on a paid account, but if not I believe the highest skill you get with a token is either 80 or 85... it doesn't auto GM you on anything... Unless I'm mistaken... so make that the "Cap" for Free Accounts...

As far as redeeming Commodity Deeds... if this is a friend or I'm just trying to be nice, I will redeem the deed and give the guy the stack at the bank if I know he can't redeem... maybe instead of the "Young" tag they will put a new tag on "Free" toons so we can recognize them to offer them help or whatever...

The problem is there is no CC tied to a Free account until they PAY for the account at which point it's not Free, it's a paid account and the limits we're discussing would go away anyway.

 

[UOKaiser]

&



you should keep the focus on the credit cards owners and make cross-checks to see how many trialcode are bind to a CC and so on you probaly know this better than me.

my 2c

The trial accounts are already bind to 1 credit card per account. You cant create more than 1 trial account with the same cc.

 

[debii]

sounds great

 

[Heimi]

Just wondering, what exactly constitutes a trial account? Is it one created using the free code from the account website or something else?

 

[Der Rock]

No Transcendence Scrolls
No PowerScrolls
No Quests beyond Haven
No Housing
No Vendors
BOD limitations, similar to what Kellgory expressed
No Commodity Deed Creation
No Holiday Rewards
No Factions
No Guilds
No Shard Transfers
No access to most recent publish 'desirable' (Replica Drops currently, as example)
Auto Exorcism back to Haven upon Death, ghosts cannot roam beyond Haven
Virtue Level gain cap at first tier

Keep 'em coming

Questing is also under serious discussion, at least limiting the massive abuse of Heartwood.

the "skeleton crew" should not waste to much time with coding thousends of lines,
keep it as simple as possible,
Trial acc. should not be able to leave new haven.
problems solved

 

[Basara]

Making the cheaters pay to cheat isn't going to solve the 3rd party program problems anyway.

Sadly, she is right there...but it will go a long way in ending resource and gold farming.

Of course, so many of the 3rd party programs that are used for gratuitous abuse of the collection of gold and/or resources, do it USING the trial accounts, it will cut that part of 3rd party program use back considerably.

Of course, here's an idea -


Bring back the original concept of Haven (no vets except for companions) back as its own shard (a full shard, not just an island).

• Trial and new accounts would be able to have up to 5 characters on it; all other accounts, 1 character.
• It would not be part of the vet reward or housing systems. Houses could be built, but only by the trial accounts, and be limited to 2-story customs and the similarly-sized traditional houses (no towers, keeps or castles). Existing accounts can buy houses off the trial ones)
• When an account loses its Young status, or the first time the character logs in after the trial period is over, the player is given 60 minutes on each character that existed before the timer ran out, to prepare his or her character. The character can take anything on them, in their pack, in their bank, and in their stable, and transfer to a shard of their choice, at the end of that time period, free.
• However, unlike normal transfers, commodity deeds, checks, loaded pets, special scrolls (PS, SoA, SoT, etc.) will not transfer, nor will any stack of items in the bank that weighs over 400 stone (i.e. gold would have to be in 20k stacks to transfer, and so on). BODs could only transfer singly - BOD Books would not. The transfer will not occur until all offending items are removed from the bank & backpack.
• Optionally, a collection system could be set up, to where a character could donate stuff that won't transfer, and the points transfer to their destination. (items available from the point system at their destination would be things roughly on the power level of the Dark Night quest items, or items costing 50k or less from spring cleaning, and no one could transfer more than 100k points per character)
• When the account is down to one Trial-era character on the shard, the player is given the option to transfer the character, or permanently keep it on the shard. If they keep the character there, it becomes like any other character. If they transfer, their house on the new account shard immediately falls on departure, with a check for the house value being added to the character's pack on arrival at its new home.
• Those who stay, and vets that start their one character on that new shard, would be asked (but not required) to help out new players on the shard when possible. The only real requirement is that the character be logged in, and played, some short amount of time (say 10 hours each quarter-year). Failure to meet the play requirement would result in the account's house (if any) on that shard going IDOC, and the character being deleted if the house falls (or the character doesn't meet the 10-hour requirement within the week). This would allow players to act, if they so choose, as guild recruiters, psuedo-companions, etc.

 

[Basara]

Just wondering, what exactly constitutes a trial account? Is it one created using the free code from the account website or something else?

Both:

There's the free code from the account website, PLUS...

Most of the box releases in the last 6+ years (can't personally speak for before then), at least, has come with a number of "buddy codes" that one could give to friends to start accounts. 7th Anniversary had 7 of them, for example.

Given the sheer number of boxes released out there, that has given those exploiting the trials a potential pool of millions of trial codes.

 

[Spree]

I seen some people say to keep them out of Fel or restrict them to Haven only. But if I have a friend that want to play they should be able to start on Siege and not have to be penalized by having playing to a trammel shard first.

 

[lucitus]

I think we should also see, if "we" are removing all the features, nobody will test it, one of the good thing of UO is that you can completly test it for your own.

I agree with the house limit, but better you limit it to a small 8*8.

I disagree with a complete BoD Limit, better is to make a char limit of 1 character per shard.

 

[tassloff]

Of course, here's an idea -


Bring back the original concept of Haven (no vets except for companions) back as its own shard (a full shard, not just an island).

* Trial and new accounts would be able to have up to 5 characters on it; all other accounts, 1 character.
* It would not be part of the vet reward or housing systems. Houses could be built, but only by the trial accounts, and be limited to 2-story customs and the similarly-sized traditional houses (no towers, keeps or castles). Existing accounts can buy houses off the trial ones)
* When an account loses its Young status, or the first time the character logs in after the trial period is over, the player is given 60 minutes on each character that existed before the timer ran out, to prepare his or her character. The character can take anything on them, in their pack, in their bank, and in their stable, and transfer to a shard of their choice, at the end of that time period, free.
* However, unlike normal transfers, commodity deeds, checks, loaded pets, special scrolls (PS, SoA, SoT, etc.) will not transfer, nor will any stack of items in the bank that weighs over 400 stone (i.e. gold would have to be in 20k stacks to transfer, and so on). BODs could only transfer singly - BOD Books would not. The transfer will not occur until all offending items are removed from the bank & backpack.
* Optionally, a collection system could be set up, to where a character could donate stuff that won't transfer, and the points transfer to their destination. (items available from the point system at their destination would be things roughly on the power level of the Dark Night quest items, or items costing 50k or less from spring cleaning, and no one could transfer more than 100k points per character)
* When the account is down to one Trial-era character on the shard, the player is given the option to transfer the character, or permanently keep it on the shard. If they keep the character there, it becomes like any other character. If they transfer, their house on the new account shard immediately falls on departure, with a check for the house value being added to the character's pack on arrival at its new home.
* Those who stay, and vets that start their one character on that new shard, would be asked (but not required) to help out new players on the shard when possible. The only real requirement is that the character be logged in, and played, some short amount of time (say 10 hours each quarter-year). Failure to meet the play requirement would result in the account's house (if any) on that shard going IDOC, and the character being deleted if the house falls (or the character doesn't meet the 10-hour requirement within the week). This would allow players to act, if they so choose, as guild recruiters, psuedo-companions, etc.

Very good idea !!!

And make that the companion can't transfert so they wont be abuse too

 

[kelmo]

Spree, I have no issues with trial accounts on Siege. I just do not feel they should have any major effect on the game. Voting in factions springs to mind. Ghosting spawns.

 

[Ylias Tendris]

No housing
No Bods
No access to the donation system
No access to Heartwood
No vendors
No access to champ spawns
No holiday gifts

Only able to mine plain iron
Only able to chop normal wood

 

[DHMagicMan_1]

I don't see the point of restricting to TC or restricting to New Haven. Speaking for myself... I never would have played the game more than 2 hours if all I could do was New Haven... Luckily I started playing well before New Haven (or Haven or Tram) existed.

I think Freebie accounts should be able to play wherever... with their friends if they have any, or if people volunteer to show them around and the newbies "trust" them... (full body shiver)...

There should be the other limitations based on skill gains, stat gains, maybe BoD collecting and/or Commodity Deed use to deter unattended farming, but I have no problem with "freebies" experiencing most aspects of the game in their first free month... if not all the high end content and all the collecting aspects.

 

[Lord Kynd]

why remove house placement rule's ?
i don't understand that.

 

[Lord Kynd]

I seen some people say to keep them out of Fel or restrict them to Haven only. But if I have a friend that want to play they should be able to start on Siege and not have to be penalized by having playing to a trammel shard first.

i had to start when it was only the lands called Fel nowadays. why should a new player not have to also
siege could easily have restrictions removed .. via a gump of course at character creation.
but yah keep all accounts under 30days confined to certain area's, a new player really should have the need for a house, but a desire to have one someday.

 

[Ylias Tendris]

why remove house placement rule's ?
i don't understand that.

1. New Players have no need for a house
2. Trial accounts are used to (script) place houses to sell to other players
3. Trial accounts with houses are used to horde resources with scripting.

 

[Gheed]

i would like to be have the restriction on the placement of deeds from veterian rewards removed. if i can claim or get a ore cart deed i would like to be able to place it in any of my homes same with banner deeds etc reguardless of how old acct as long as it is a paid acct

*disagrees*
Although it is an inconvenience at times switching out vet characters to place, I feel it is something only vets old enough should be able to do.

While slightly off topic. I strongly agree with the OP and disagree with Airmid. Imagine a true new player... first learning of the vet reward system. Probably through seeing an interesting reward such as a banner, mining cart, or skeleton and asking around about it. Only to find out they will have to wait 10 years to place certain items. It would seem pretty ridiculous waiting that long to place a barely useful deco item.

At that point vet rewards become more detrimental than useful. Would veterans really be too upset if younger accounts could use their rewards? And if younger accounts can use them... but not collect them for free... then they would have to BUY them. Which would make anyone exorcising their option to sell them happier due to increased demand.

Leave the ethy mounts the way they are. Polar bears and cu's are nice ways to show off your age. Any age player has options to ride some sort of etheral. So the functionality of the ethy is available to all.

 

[Morgana LeFay (PoV)]

Would veterans really be too upset if younger accounts could use their rewards?

Yes...yes we would.

(just kidding)

 

[Elric_Soban]

Great start, Draconi!

No houses for the non-paying is a no brainer.

Definately need to keep trial accounts OUT OF FEL. trial account ghost cams = plague on this game

 

[BartofCats]

personally after reading this thread, I would like to see...

1) limit of 2 chars per shard for non paying customers.
-we all know we have messed up our first char. and want to try a second, will probably eliminate some types of the abuse in the system

2) Upon entering a dungeon the chars are freely attackable like any other vet player
-may as well give them the real experience of the game!

3) Death instantly teleports you back to haven island with only the clothes and weapons on your paperdoll.
-not to the graveyards as it was or the nearest healer.

4) DELETION of said char(s) if the account is not active within 2 weeks of activating the trial account.
-I know, this seems harsh, however why should EA/mythic store your information for a free trial?

5) quests of any type not able to be started except on new haven island. (skill quests only)
-Not vital to the game, but would hinder a little of the 3rd party action.

6) no access to heartwood whatsoever, nor sanctuary.

7) ilshnear, T2A, Malas, and Tokuno entirely off limits. if you cant do it in Trammel/Fel and get your in game experience, too bad.

Of course these are just my opinions.

 

[kelmo]

Death transporting a trial character is interesting...

 

[MissEcho]

Does limiting trial accounts mean we could get BoS back to working how they did? Maybe not for gold, but for resources?

Yes

Only put the gold back, that is the ONE thing that has really wrecked dungeon play in UO, for those of us who DON'T cheat and make all our gold via pvm monster bashing and other legitimate ways, crafting, vendors etc, this has been the one change that has basically killed actual play. And yes, I know all the ways to 'get gold to the bank' (beetles, recalling, piling up behind objects hoping no one comes and flogs it before you can get back to take it out, so please don't give me 'advice' on how to get gold out I know them all) but frankly, this change has been a total total DRAG to anyone who actually 'likes' to loot their monsters. It has certainly killed a lot of pvm for me, as after 5 yrs I don't want to bother with it so only go where it is 'easy' to bank from or not bother looting at all as it is a waste of time and effort to get the gold out. I had over 7000 powder in store when the change came in, and have basically got down to 400 and now have stopped bothering to pvm pretty much full time, as it is boring the constant coming and going to bank, and just too much grind. And no I am not 'lazy' in fact, I have way too much to do, and find wasting effort and time to do a simple thing like 'loot my kills' to get gold is just not FUN anymore.

I would just rather see the bos drop with 30 charges and be 'un-rechargeable'. Put the gold back in as a legitimate 'send' item and not something that basically kills the 30 charges to send 15k gold which you can amass in a few minutes. That send rate is totally ridiculous. Make it one charge to send 10k gold, and it would certainly account for the bulk of average looting and game play. Each bag can only send 300k (1-4 pvm outings) then needs replacing. It would certainly resurrect the solen queen bos quests now pretty much 'defunct', re enliven sale of bos on vendors, powder can still be used to charge pet summon balls. There were tons of ways to limit abuse by scripters of the bos without nerfing them for everyone.

I for one know that my interest in actually going out to pvm dropped dramatically when they nerfed the bos. Pvm and looting basically became a damn chore and cut out 80% of the actual enjoyment in doing it for me.

I think pretty much every other game I have played generally dumps any gold you pick up into your char 'bank total' and doesn't actually 'count' as an item on hand, so this problem never really comes into play, you kill you loot, simple. UO has made it so that you kill you pick up what you can carry, then have to decide to not bother looting it, or go to the hassle of getting it to the bank, interrupting what you are doing, forcing you 'out' of where you are fighting, and generally turning it into a total drag.

As for those who will shout, what did you do before the bos, I will answer there was no such places as no recall in Ilshenar, no peerless dungeons where the loot is great but you can't get it out without totally stuffing around, no events where they totally 'nerf' the ability to recall so again you are limited to what you can carry or 'leave'.

And as for on topic, make it that 'trial' accounts cannot USE a bos, and that all accounts should be over 30 days old to be able to 'USE' a bos.

 

[PASmountaindew]

I’m opening this thread to discuss:

* Discussion on the impact of being able to restrict trial users from some systems
* What systems you feel are meant for paying subscribers
* What current “age related” restrictions you’d like to see removed

Restrict trial accounts to Trammel and Felluca only. But at the same time do not allow trial accounts access to to T2A. I believe this will help keep trial accounts from being used as champ spawn cams but allow someone to experience PvP and PvM and also prevent them from scripting heartwood quests for the runics.

 

[Kelline]

If I started a trial acct now &

No housing
No Bods
No access to the donation system
No access to Heartwood
No vendors
No access to champ spawns
No holiday gifts

Only able to mine iron
Only able to chop normal wood

Id be extremely bored within minutes & quit

the idea of a trial is to get an idea of what the WHOLe game is about. If u dont let them experience the game, it gets boreing, the loose interest & wont play no more so no money comes in.

no a trial acct shouldnt have all the advantages a paying acct has. My duaghter plays runescape. Without her paid acct, she is limited to what she can do & what she can wear. But she can still do enough of the game to know she wants more.

 

[Kaleb]

1 Character per account minus test, limited access to high level areas minus test, limited to only one server besides test. Champ areas closed but dungeon levels W/o champ spawns remain open. T2a Closed, Resource gathering but nothing higher than 1st level, say only iron, normal wood, normal leather. buying and not selling to npc's minus test. maby set an Item mod cap say 25 or 50% of what it is now on normal server only test is well test.

 

[Tjalle]

If I started a trial acct now &

No housing
No Bods
No access to the donation system
No access to Heartwood
No vendors
No access to champ spawns
No holiday gifts

Only able to mine iron
Only able to chop normal wood

Id be extremely bored within minutes & quit

Why would a true new player be bored within minutes if he couldn´t do those things?

First thing he would do is learn about the game and look around and maybe try to gain some skills and kill a mongbat or two.

I doubt a true new player, right after creation, would run straight to the tailor trying to get a BOD, find out he can´t get one and quit.

I say no BODs for new players. It has just messed the game up too much.

I´m sure that if after a couple of days of working on a crafter char someone wanted to try some BODs, then they could easily find someone to give them a couple to fill.

And as for the donations and Heartwood. I doubt that´s the first thing a true new player would want to do so no need to let new players be a part of that system...

And if somehow they wanted to try it anyways they can always try those "off-limit" things on TC.

 

[Gheed]

Awesome Draconi! You are part of the greatest dev team I can recall in 9 years of gameplay.

I agree with several points already listed here. My top 10 list:


10) Cap Fame/Karma

9) Virtue Level gain cap at first tier

8) Killing a trial red does not allow a gain in justice

7) No Transcendence Scrolls above .01 (.02 for fel) and using justice on a trial player doesnt give you extra scroll.

7) No PowerScrolls above 105 and using justice on a trial player doesnt give you extra scroll. With capped skills they (new players)cant use them anyway.

6) Cap skill gain. Hard cap. +skill items do not go beyond the cap. Resists capped at all 60's.

5) No Quests beyond Haven

4) Skull advancement at champion spawns for trial playes as a ghost (or any ghost for that matter) will become invisible. When a body (inside the spawn area of a champ idol) decays off the server, ghosts are teleported to an area just outside of the spawn zone and not allowed to return to the zone as a ghost (if they have not used the I'm stuck" option and selected a town). Increase body decay timer 5 minutes if death occurs in the champ spawn zone.

3.5) No house ownership. Friending/Co-Owning trial players prohibited.

3) BoD timer set to a solid 6 hrs and trial accounts will not be elidgable for a new BoD immediately after turning one in... one every 6 hrs... that's it. Rare ore BoD's capped at bronze smalls. No LBoDs of any kind.

2. Mining and Lumberjacking - limit gathering these resources to plain wood and iron ore. Allow for gems to be found only replace rare gems with common gems. Prohibit use of prospecting tools and limit gargoyle axes to spawning earth elementals.

And the number one desired limitation to trial accounts: *drum Roll*
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No heartwood quests!... Not just for trial players but for all players... paying or not.

 

[Maplestone]

I don't think restricting trial accounts from Felucca is in line with what UO's all about. PvP is part of UO, and there's a portion of new players who have a strong interest in it.

What is the expected outcome of a player walking into Fel in their first week of playing UO? Is there a true newbie experience to be found in Fel any more? If a person comes into UO saying "hey, I've heard there's a nifty PvP side to this game", how do they find it and get a taste of it?

Perhaps if the test center was completely open to trial accounts and had some "pre-made characters" to choose from, it would let people get a feel of what PvP is like without the tedious arrangement of skills and equipment?

 

[kelmo]

What is the expected outcome of a player walking into Fel in their first week of playing UO? Is there a true newbie experience to be found in Fel any more? If a person comes into UO saying "hey, I've heard there's a nifty PvP side to this game", how do they find it and get a taste of it?

Perhaps if the test center was completely open to trial accounts and had some "pre-made characters" to choose from, it would let people get a feel of what PvP is like without the tedious arrangement of skills and equipment?

*smiles* It would be quite the experience.

 

[Ender]

Fel should definitely only be accessable to paying customers. Trial accounts could still go to Fel on Test Center though.

 

[Painted Elves]

I know that people who play Siege and Fel only will not like this...I dont mean to detract from your playstyles at all and understand that you'd want your friends to start playing with you right off the bat... these are just my ideas.

Mandatory 15 day "young" status. 15 days before this works; "i renounce my young player status".
No houses for non Paying accounts. (Really if you've played as a real newb (mostly alone) for 30 days you should not have enough money to build a house anyway IMO.)
No heartwood Access for non paying accounts.
No access to champ spawn areas.



As for people who say that vet rewards should be able to be used by anyone...No. I have kept a hold of my account for years and one reason is that i'll be rewarded with really neat things that help distinguish my character from others.

 

[Lady Michelle]

I didn't know trial accounts could be continued? (never had one)

I look at it the other way, the majority of this thread is saying oh they shouldn't be able to have this and that and limiting pretty much every system, well if you do that their not going to experience most of the game.
If their on TC they can experience it all but its of no real value there, but they can at least see what working at any of these systems can reward them with.

Yes that is what I thought to once the trial accounts 2 weeks was up that was that. Then if the person liked uo they would have to buy a code. Was the main reason I suggested the test center.

 

[Harlequin]

First, let me say that looking at trial account abuse is a very welcome change, esp the areas you mentioned like spawn cams and housing.

Secondly, I am very impressed and extremely happy that you are asking players for feedback

Much better than popping in excorcism and the 15 day delay for housing.

For BODs, it's going to be a bit more difficult. The problems:

1) If people are using trial accounts for bods, I suspect they won't even bother to train them. They'd just start chars with 50 tailoring and 50 smithing. Next, at these skills, they'll get junk bods. Which is only useful if they pass to their real 120 crafters to recycle into better bods. To prevent this, it looks like it bods for trial accounts has to be blocked completely.

2) If too many things are blocked, trial accounts would not get a chance to experience alot of the aspects and may think that UO is not that fun. We want to keep this to a minimal.

So what I suggest instead is, simply flag the bods received by the trial accounts as uncompatible with the normal bods. Only usable by trial account users, this should prevent people from passing the bods they collect from trial accounts to their main crafters and let them recycle it. For ease of programming, maybe trial account users can only collect and turn in bods from a special NPC in Haven.

Meanwhile, add a counter like the doom counter to that will increase the chances of crafters getting a really good bod (aga - val hammer levels) everytime they get a lesser one.

The only bod I received that is eligible for a val hammer, it's a small val exceptional bod, and that's since the bod system started. Granted I'm not a hardcore 6 hourly bod machine, but...it's one of those "grrrrr stupid @%$#!^ RNG hates me" things.

 

[It Lives]

Thank you,

Tim "Draconi" Cotten

No.. Your the man thank you!

 

[Jhym]

IMHO:

1. No house placement for trial accounts, but friendable.
2. Non-haven quests are not available, but trials can visit those places. So, for instance, they go to heartwood but none of the quests are available until they start paying.
3. One or two dungeons are 'newbie' oriented (ie, have one or two levels for those that are learning) but all others do NOT treat trials as special. So you can't sit in Destard waving at ancient wyrms or causing trouble.
4. No factions until paying.
5. Trial accounts cannot use powerscrolls, alacrity, or sot's, and cannot use talimans.
6. Two slots per shard.
7. Resource gathering is NOT limited (come on folks, no reason to limit them on this.) If people really are pissy about it, fine, limit the youngs to particular resource gathering areas or to town limits only.
8. Ghosts of trial accounts are returned to Haven healers ONLY. Trial players get automatic insurance of 25 items, more if they pay themselves.
9. Trial accounts can join in EM events, but any special items or materials given to them are account-linked, and non-transferrable.
10. After 60 days, trials accounts are deleted.
11. Any cheating/scripting, etc, equals account deletion.


Otherwise, I think letting them putter around the maps is not a bad thing. I don't think it makes any sense to keep them in a bowl (like Old Haven) nor does it make sense to give them no danger ("young") -- however they shouldn't have a house and they shouldn't be able to grab things from other paying customers.

 

[Lord Nabin]

This is excellent I am all for the idea Draconi. Having several paid accounts of my own it has been frustrating for a long to see the trial accounts taking advantage of our beloved land.

I look forward to the removal of the age limits to place houses even though I am totally over that now.

I feel keeping the limits simple is the best. Nothing more than what a basic player could realistically accomplish in two weeks. My first house took me almost three months to save up for and buy.

Maybe as a new account is titled "Young"

a trial account is title "Trial" or something else "Guest" I could see the community reaching out to them a bit more and encouraging them to sign up. Especially if there was well "Maybe a free game time referral bonus" involved. There are a lot of players who like to help out new visitors and frankly they are the true ambassadors to the game of UO so why not reward them for the great work they do somehow.

 

[Lady Aalia]

I like most of the proposals....

What i dont like are :

Character limit... why let them try as many as they want
Not sure on the recource gathering.. not allowing them would be silly since most crafters need recources.
Why not cap the skill at 60? by then they can figure out if they like it

And i guess a hardcap on skills would be best idea on alot of the things.

As of BODs lets not have them but if they try to get one pop a window explaining to the new player what BODs are what you can get from them and that he needs to be a paying customer to be able to take part in those.

The one thing i never understood is the pet thing...why cant i give a new player a horse?

 

[Uvtha]

I hope this could pathe the way to free but restricted accounts. I reaaaaaaly think that would be a GREAT idea for UO. The playing playerbase would get huge gains im betting.

 

[MagiHui]

The trial accounts are already bind to 1 credit card per account. You cant create more than 1 trial account with the same cc.

You can too.. I could go and create a thousand free trial KR's with a paypal random CC number.

 

[hawkeye_pike]

I think these changes are long overdue. Well done!

If it was for me, I'd restrict trial accounts even more. First, let us ask the crucial question:
What are trial accounts meant for?

Trial accounts should be used to get an idea about how this game works and what it is like, so a new player can decide whether to sign up to UO or not within a limited amount of time.

That's why trial accounds do not need to accumulate items, wealth or houses. Thus, I would restrict trial accounts so they can hold/use only certain game objects (like basic crafting tools, basic armor and weapons etc.). Also, you could think about restricting trial accounts to enter certain dungeons. For example, only allow them into Trammel anti-virtue dungeons. That would suffice if game testers want to get an impression about how dungeons work.

 

[UOKaiser]

You can too.. I could go and create a thousand free trial KR's with a paypal random CC number.

Still only 1 cc per account. Though mentioning that outloud you just told the people that didnt know about it how to do it.

 

[MagiHui]

Still only 1 cc per account. Though mentioning that outloud you just told the people that didnt know about it how to do it.

People who are going to exploit the game already know about stuff like this

 

[UOKaiser]

People who are going to exploit the game already know about stuff like this

Nope they dont not all. 100 percent on that. Some do. Those who do know need a bank acount to have it many are kids that don't. That method in paypal is even unnoticeble unless you searching for it. They don't really advertise it. Many use other methods that wont mention which are populor. Still too much of a hassle for most.
Don't give people too much credit. Not all of them have the smarts like you and others that can think of ways on youre own most just follow the crowd.

 

[Pfloyd]

I hope this could pathe the way to free but restricted accounts. I reaaaaaaly think that would be a GREAT idea for UO. The playing playerbase would get huge gains im betting.

Sounds like a comeback of naked PvPing

 

[Farscape]

I would like to see trial accounts unable to use soul stones to beef up along with the bod system change I know it was first implimented to help gain skills but now I feel it should work opposite to what it does now GM smith get a bod every 1 hour new smith every 6 hours and reduce as they get more skill so gm smiths are not penalised