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A Poll - What is Your Opinion of the State of the Sonoma Shard?

Lord Sir Scott

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I would like hear feedback from the Regulars Of the Sonoma Shard in regards to what your opinon is of the state of the sonoma shard & What you feel would make this a better Shard For all Users.
Please make a post here as detailed as you can..
This is in regards to The "Shard" as a whole not personal flames against other guilds per say...But your welcome to Post as you see fit
.
So Sonoma What Say you?
 
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Calell

Guest
Personally, I think the state of the Sonoma shard is pretty much the state of all shards in UO at this time. The community minded people are trying hard to stay afloat and keep the events coming and the 'feeling' of community there, the role players (though few on Sonoma seem to be left) try to keep their sagas going, and the people who get the most pleasure out of spoiling the game for others seem to be the majority of players these days and also profiting the most. Come to think of it, it's pretty much that way across most MMOs these days period. And the powers that be don't seem to care, so long as fees are paid.

Sorry I'm a bit disillusioned at the moment. Maybe I'll have a more positive outlook someday...I think UO is in good hands right now with the current development staff, but I'll reserve pats on the back while we see what EAM actually lets them accomplish for the greater good.
 

ham92

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Does anything go on anymore? I pop into fel brit gate a few minutes a night and its been empty the past several days.
 
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imported_Peppermace

Guest
Sonoma's all right. EA is getting a lot better about responding to problems and have fixed a lot of bugs and exploits recently. Outlook is good for the long term if they keep it up. I don't think shard is gonna go down anytime soon, no rumors of Sonoma doomsday like Drach anyway hehehe. A little disturbing other shards are looking at us as farm land, but we could use a population boost. It would be nice to see more than four people in a busy town during prime time.

How to make it better? Well, I'd like to see more UM events. Our calendar is pretty empty most of the time and there are a lot of storyline's EA never resolved. I also think people would get into Ilshenar more if the Ilsh champs dropped minor artys at a paragon rate, maybe have Serado of Sleeping Dragon drop Tokuno minors. "Just throw artys at 'em" really doesn't apply here, Semidar is tough enough to warrant an artic death dealer lol. There are a lot of things to do as it is, but no incentives.
 
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sean_lo

Guest
To be honest, i think they need to merge a few shards.. problem would be the housing.
 
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The Keeper

Guest
The Sonoma I once knew and loved is dead, The guilds I once loved are gone or slowly becoming inactive. I agree with Calell, there are still a few here who carry on and try to provide a community for others but over all sonoma isnt the same shared it used to be. Thats why I moved to chessie, it reminds me a lot of the old sonoma and there is a great community of role players.

Thats just my opinion


p.s.
Congrats KmR on 8 years its good to see that an old school guild is still limping along
 
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Dread Raven

Guest
I thin shard merging would be easy, they make a facet or they make new housing islands in fel and tram. Any account with a house placed on the closing shard may place on the new land, condeming the old one. Shut down west coast shards lie LA and origin.
 
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imported_Peppermace

Guest
If we aren't happy with Sonoma, we should probably try to make our shard better rather than crushing several shards into a recycled cube :p. No matter how they did it, merging shards would cause a lot of negative things to happen and we really don't need to lose more people because they lost their prized malas "hole" house or Luna vendor house. If we perk up Sonoma, we can attract other people on over to us rather than become a mess of "what if I have chars on all the shards being merged!? What about all the stuff I own that doesn't fit in my bank box?!" etc.....

I think talking positively would help quite a bit. Going around with "UO is boring/dumb/pointless/stupid" on our tongues isn't going to attract anybody new or help retain current players. I would also like to see more players attending events. KmR just had a great crafter event they advertised weeks in advance and very few people went. I've had mixed results for my events, one being really bad vs two good turnouts. Dunno how Mum's events are going this week, but if she's getting low turnouts too there's a problem. Events are suppose to be fun, even if you don't walk out millions richer and *gasp* you had to share screen space with a rival guild member.

Merging shards would solve the population problem for a while, but not the issues at the root of the low player retention. While EA is *FAR* from perfect, we can do things to make this game better from the player side rather than blame bad customer service, bugs/exploits, etc for everything.
 
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imported_Vyrquenox

Guest
our shard is fine besides for the fact darth vader is wandering about and purposefully trying to 'steal the limelight' from the famous green trickster and 'salt people' and worrying about how best to get people killed at events. What we can all do as our shard is notice the people that are interested in making it worse and shun them. Sonoma is great other than that. I'm not too worried, the most powerful 'jedi'--as it were--know me and watch out for me and I am Obi-Wan. You did this to yourself Anakin. Everyone knows I stand for good. I stood for you once. I stand for everyone. I cannot think of how this shard can be better than all of the wonderful people we already have. I can think of how this shard can be made worse by the petty desires of an angry child.

And this is rhetorical to a degree. Not innuendo. We all know these types of people.
 
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imported_onthefifty

Guest
my guild left sonoma in november, coincidentally the same nite that FL announced their arrival (no we had no prior knowledge of this).

Each of us had there own reasons for leaving and I can not speak for my other guildmates but for me, guess i was just looking for a larger populated shard to play on.

one of the things that gets me is the lack of trading and item hoarding that goes on in this shard, especially weapons trade.

doing events was another issue as it seemed that some were there for no other reason than to grief others play. saw this at some events as well as in doom after the damage changes were put in.

i was told that when i first came to sonoma that it was a more mature shard. i saw anything but that in my time there.

for those that are trying to make the shard better by fostering more community involvement, i salute you. i'm afraid you have a long rocky road ahead.
 
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imported_Hecubus

Guest
Sonoma has always been (and always will be) my home.

I'm a really casual player these days (0-3 hours per week), but ran my share of events in the past- so hats off to those who have been here for the long haul and still running them, and a hearty salute to the newer folks who have the drive to attempt them.

My guild is so small and inactive at this point that I log in to see that I've missed the other members even though we've logged in on the same day (sorry Miri!), and it generally ends in me running errands or going off alone.

And all I can think is: I could attend a PRE...but ack! I missed it. Followed by, I bet there's at least a few other casual folks online like me right now, who are probably cool enough to thump some monster skulls without too much worry of death, items, or gold.

There probably a lot like me, and would much rather have the company of a few friends than a good gold/arti ratio per hour. It's just that we can't find one another.

The easiest places to find other players are Luna- but under the assumption that people are all d00ds or banksitters, doesn't make it very conducive to the "pick a couple of people at random and hit a dungeon" idea. You could go to a dungeon and meet other players, but generally if they came there- they're camping a certain spawn and probably don't want company, they're on a guild/group hunt and may or may not be receptive to adding one more to crash the party bars, or they're looking for a pvp opportunity (fel), which can be really fun too, unless they came out in force!

My point is- I tend to think there are other players out there just like me, who aren't interested in joining a different guild, but just want to tag along with a few cool people without worrying about what item appeared in whom's pack.

The folks that run PRE's/events help initiate the kind of networking that allows for this, but as we know this kind of stuff takes time/resources/planning to pull off- and as regular as they are- they can't cover off-hour casual folks like me, though we still appreciate the fact that they happen.

Maybe it's just a matter of picking a currently under-used bank with the understanding that people can just randomly meet up and do things together. Maybe we meet at Tokuno, or Skara, or another such place and strike up a conversation and hit a spawn, and maybe we drop a book or two at the bank saying where we went, and at what time.

Maybe it attracts a griefer or two- but that's the risk.

I dunno, just throwing the idea out there. I tend to think there are more friendly, casual folks out there loking for a group romp than we think.

I am Jack's pointless ramble.

- Hec
 
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imported_Bishop_Hell

Guest
Having played Uo off and on since 1997 I have seen a lot of chnages, most have not been good. Its a bunch of little things that are annoying. I was away from uo for several months recently and came back to find that they screwed up the bags of sending. Not everybody that uses them was a damn scripter some just didnt like having to recall to the bank every 10 minutes. PVP used to be alot better... way back in the day they had a bounty system where you wold cut off the head of a red and turn it into the city guards. Then you would collect all the bounty that all their victims placed on them. Back in those days "pks" pretty much flew solo and didnt need "gank squads". Pvp was just what it implies player against player alot of the time. Now it seems that people wont pvp unless they roll 5 deep or more. The economy is definately not as good as it used to be. I remember when 1 million gold was actually considered a lot. I used to sell a million gold on ebay for $20 now on tradespot you can get it for $2 a million. Uo is graphically inferior to every other mmorpg on the market imho they really shouldnt screw with things like bags of sending too much. I have played WOW, LOTRO, and Evercrack but I have never found as good of friends on those games as I have found here. That is the main reason I came back. For all my venting, pancakes, and moaning I still love the game.

To answer your question about the state of Sonoma I would have to say i am glad to see that certain guilds are hosting events. A friend of mine tried hosting events a while back and nobdy showed up. We need to get a deeper sense of community of Sonoma not just in Tram but Fel too. My hats off to the guilds that are at least trying
 
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imported_Viper09

Guest
In my opinion, Sonoma is almost the same as it has been. The reason it seems to be less populated is that instead of one wonderful facet, we now have several other ones where everyone can run about. Instead of everyone sitting around at the brit gate, they are off in some other facet running around or sitting at that luna bank. Its almost the same, just much less events and less chance of running into people.
 
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imported_Peppermace

Guest
I was offline for a while. Sonoma is a pain to get involvement, yeah. Most vets would rather pick at each other in the star room than do anything else. I'm a bit disillusioned right now because there are a few *good* people quitting (actually quitting not the fake whiney two week quitting). Ugh. Anyway, I'll keep trying my hand at it, but while I love seeing KHV, HELP, and a few PAS turn out, it would be nice to know where *insert large guild names here* are and why they aren't coming. If ya'll have better ideas for stuff to do, message people who run them or have your guild host a few.
 
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Guest

Guest
Like alot of ppl have said UO is destroying itself across every shard. Hell EA is under a serious gun right now is why they are doing anything and it doesnt start with UO. EA has had a very rude awakening in customer service recently but as far as sonoma goes, depends what you are into Scott. If u like guild ran events then yes it's basically gone excpet for what Mum is doing. If Mum decides to quit, you can forget about events happening. Now if you like pvp/spawns and the balance of power then Sonoma is very much active. You wont find many at the gate in fel cuz I believe some guilds (hrm hrm) have had a rude awakening but the fel side is always plenty active. Trammel is dying. You can blame EA for that. EA wants UO to make money so the Dev teams are very limited and restrained when it comes to presenting ideas. I'm sure EA is screaming ''make it look like WoW!!!" But it's obvious we don't want WoW or we'd be playing it. UO is blah right now. We get lame stupid UO ran events. We want event rares, things to be proud of to say we were there. STOP PLAYING WITH MY EMOTIONS EA!!!!!!!!!! ok sry.
basically all of you come to fel and let's recreate the days of the Romans and test your skills at battle heh. i'm done. holla back!
 
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imported_Peppermace

Guest
Ah Melchior... I wish you would ICQ me more often I always enjoy a chat with you. But to answer your various emotes, EA is actually doing a lot to better this game recently, for example the removal of various hacked and duped items gamewide, everything down to those sigil colored spellbooks are being nuked. I was in a bad mood that last post and may have portrayed a negative view I don't normally have. Sorry :p I get bothered when people leave. Yes EA has a history of doing everything the entirely wrong way (hence why I really think shard merging would end badly lol) but there are a lot of good things happening too, like that crater in Moonglow! Looks like Blackrock will be resolved!! Sir Scott, you're opinion on the black burning hole in your town square? hehehehe
 
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Guest

Guest
I came over to sonoma because of a long story.
Was met by very friendly people. Was able to get up on my feet and work a vendor project.

I have to say the people that are there are great. There is strength in that.


As for population. It is very hard to find a buzz of activity. No not people to ICQ or to run into at Luna. But a buzz of activity. Lots of places just dont have players.

I can tell you from a vendors/merchant perspective and having vendor in Orign, Sonoma and Altantic. All in LUNA. Origin is DEAD DEAD. Hard to sell anything. Sonoma is close to Origin but is a little more active. I went to Origin from get go and have seen it shrink away.

Now Atlantic is a measuring stick I use. Brit bank active. Luna bank active. Vending very active.

Im deciding between leaving Origin or Sonoma.

Mostly for the reason I can now have 7 characture slots. I can do everything I want on one shard. Housing is easily found on all shards. Transfer tokens are fairly cheap. I like being a merchant and have to go where it can be sustained. Oh and with housing storage increase, and getting rid of need to pakrat, I dont need multiple homes.

Origin and Sonoma arent active enough, my point, for being a merchant. You can get by. But its not buzzing.
 
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imported_Bluebottle

Guest
<blockquote><hr>

I thin shard merging would be easy, they make a facet or they make new housing islands in fel and tram. Any account with a house placed on the closing shard may place on the new land, condeming the old one. Shut down west coast shards lie LA and origin.

[/ QUOTE ]

Alas, that might mess up the number of folks with grandfathered multi-shard little houses. Most gave up on the idea of placing a single large house since they rotate around several shards and have a little house on each one since placing a single "new" house condemns ALL grandfathered houses
 
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TI-LuBu

Guest
Could be better, but making the best of it, the events are fun. As long as my partner in crime veskara is with me its always a blast! And the people of sonoma make it fun too the different personalitys but yeah sonomas had better days and alot of history!
 
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Razeial

Guest
The sonoma i grew up with is long gone. It used to be a great, populated place. You could find ANYTHING at WBB. Now luna is full of people being AFK. PvM was rich and guilds such as SDK and PAS was where it was for PvM. The PvP side of sonoma was awsome. It was the place to be a red mage. Yew gate was always populated, thieving was always a risk. Sonoma used to be "fun." now it's washed up. I think this is reflective of all the shards. I'll be suprised if UO makes it passed next summer.
 
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Razeial

Guest
The sonoma i grew up with is long gone. It used to be a great, populated place. You could find ANYTHING at WBB. Now luna is full of people being AFK. PvM was rich and guilds such as SDK and PAS was where it was for PvM. The PvP side of sonoma was awsome. It was the place to be a red mage. Yew gate was always populated, thieving was always a risk. Sonoma used to be "fun." now it's washed up. I think this is reflective of all the shards. I'll be suprised if UO makes it passed next summer.
 
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Jack Tallow

Guest
The state of the shard?

Greatly diminished now that I left, and it was to be expected to fade without such bright, shining lights as myself to guide it. Such pillars of honesty and virtue, leading the community by the beacon of my brightly shining codpiece, are rare to find. Tis a shame, really. For now whose codpiece shall ye look to for guidance?
 
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