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Bets on the release date?

ShriNayne

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If Alpha testing doesn't start until July then NL might not launch until next year. There was no way it was going to be ready for release last year, even taking into account the 6 months delay for whatever the personal issues one of the team had, it just wasn't ever going to be ready last year. At this point it seems highly unlikely it will even be in Beta testing by the Anniversary in September. I really hope it doesn't go the same way as the Account Management revamp.
 

Veldrane

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If Alpha testing doesn't start until July then NL might not launch until next year. There was no way it was going to be ready for release last year, even taking into account the 6 months delay for whatever the personal issues one of the team had, it just wasn't ever going to be ready last year. At this point it seems highly unlikely it will even be in Beta testing by the Anniversary in September. I really hope it doesn't go the same way as the Account Management revamp.
I agree, the earliest you are looking at for a full release is 2024 and frankly, at this point, it's more likely vaporware than anything
 

Keven2002

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If Alpha testing doesn't start until July then NL might not launch until next year. There was no way it was going to be ready for release last year, even taking into account the 6 months delay for whatever the personal issues one of the team had, it just wasn't ever going to be ready last year. At this point it seems highly unlikely it will even be in Beta testing by the Anniversary in September. I really hope it doesn't go the same way as the Account Management revamp.
The "personal issue" was that Bonnie had to have her arm operated on for something a bit more severe than carpal tunnel based on my understanding. If that's the case, which I have no reason to believe otherwise, then there is zero excuse why NL was pushed back "due to personal reasons" unless she just completely took off for 6 months because as a producer she should just be managing the moving parts which can easily be done via Zoom etc.

I agree, the earliest you are looking at for a full release is 2024 and frankly, at this point, it's more likely vaporware than anything
Even if it does come out by September 2023, they missed their window. They built all this hype and had maybe 6-9 months to deliver and they completely whiffed so whatever buzz was there has been long dead for well over a year. I'm not sure what their plan is to "bring UO to the biggest audience ever" is but I can tell you now that they are starting from scratch as far as the current player base that may have been interested at some point in the past 3 years and finally gave up hope on the vaporware.

At this point, even the people that were excited to play NL have given up hope which says quite a bit. If it's released or not I dont really care; I just hope we can get some more focus on PROD so we can stop recycling the same cookie cutter things over and over for 4-6 months at a time.
 

Veldrane

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At this point, even the people that were excited to play NL have given up hope which says quite a bit. If it's released or not I dont really care; I just hope we can get some more focus on PROD so we can stop recycling the same cookie cutter things over and over for 4-6 months at a time.
It wouldn't surprise me if EA has an expectation of development regarding DAOC and UO with Broadsword. While nobody here knows what the contract is, generally it's something along the lines of EA will lease the IP to Broadsword for X number of dollars in these situations. This dollar value is based on the average players worth (this is why players are the commodity NOT the customer). Then there is an expectation by EA that Broadsword will continue to develop and support UO and DAOC in an effort to take care of "the farm" instead of letting it wither away. Given how little Broadsword ownership cares for UO (this is something that is well-documented) I suspect that NL was a smoke show for a quarterly business meeting to show that caretaking to EA. Now Bonnie gets to use it as the shield for her poor management - "oh sorry gang, no releases on prodo for six months because we're heads down on NL"
 

ShriNayne

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Every time there is a new newsletter about NL I'm astonished at how many words they can use but still say absolutely nothing, I haven't heard anything about the game that wasn't totally vague. Weather and Seasons is not really a selling point for me, I play The Sims and I've never bought an expansion pack for weather/seasons. It will be interesting to see who gets into the Beta testing for this.
 

Keven2002

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Now Bonnie gets to use it as the shield for her poor management - "oh sorry gang, no releases on prodo for six months because we're heads down on NL"
What you're saying makes sense and actually kind of reminds me, to a lesser extent, of my work where the regional heads like to create these "process improvements" for things they don't really know a ton about so when it actually comes time for rubber to meet the road it falls apart and half the time it's jammed in just to check the box that it was implemented and the other half it falls off the face of the earth because corporate decided there is a new priority.

The real question to me though is how long can Bonnie use NL as the scapegoat before something has to be produced? I think another key thing is likely Bonnie doesn't really want NL to be released because if/when it's a flop and doesn't bring anywhere near the subscriptions she said/thought that is a traceable metric that wouldn't look good for her.
 

Troy

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Every time there is a new newsletter about NL I'm astonished at how many words they can use but still say absolutely nothing, I haven't heard anything about the game that wasn't totally vague. Weather and Seasons is not really a selling point for me, I play The Sims and I've never bought an expansion pack for weather/seasons. It will be interesting to see who gets into the Beta testing for this.
Hahaha, totally agree. Every newsletter, whatever they say about NL is completely vague. There is absolutely no news about it, since it has been announced.
I hate to say this because I love this game too much, but I'm not seeing a bright future for UO. I have almost no desire to play the game anymore. It feels like it became a game of collecting rare items. We are all virtual hoarders :hahaha:
 

Pawain

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I think another key thing is likely Bonnie doesn't really want NL to be released because if/when it's a flop and doesn't bring anywhere near the subscriptions she said/thought that is a traceable metric that wouldn't look good for her.
She has already outsmarted you and made it so it can not be a flop or fail:
1674497684549.png

It will reach it's goal when released. It will be delivered to the largest audience they could deliver it to.

Their goal says nothing about increasing or decreasing current accounts. It will be simply DELIVERED.

:lol:
 

Coco_Zamis_DF

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Release: Short after UO2. Oh ah that was never released. Well instead i would say. Short after UO2.

It seems that you have to be a special kind of believer to dream about a dev team that is doing something on request of a player base. In time, bug fixed with interesting game experience beside of not can pay accounts with gtc.
I lost all my hopes in a good end of that biggest and boldest story the announced.
 

Deimos

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Given how small the team is now, I'm surprised they have the resources to spend on something like this.
 

ShriNayne

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It should have been released for the Anniversary last year, that would have made sense but yet again they missed an opportunity for free advertising. I'm just not sure the team are competent enough to make a new game with the track record they have on the existing one. If it ever actually gets launched I'll be very surprised, if it's anything like they promised I'll start believing in miracles.
 

Jennifer-Marie

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New Legacy is NOT NOT NOT -- I repeat: NOT -- a "new game".

It's the exact same game with all of the updates and quality of life changes we have been begging for for OSI for over a decade - slapped onto a "legacy" shard that harkens back to the pre-Tram days. It's Kyronix's brain child because he can't seem to look forward instead of backwards.
 

Lore

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I'm over it.

I was so excited when I got the first newsletter that I emailed the team and told them what an awesome concept it was.
Then a year passed and I joined back into the game to play.
Then I remembered why I don't enjoy the game. There's a lot of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) mechanics in UO. It's mostly FOMO. And while you all deserve and have earned what you have, it's not fun to play in the same playground with it. And I'm not the type that enjoys playing the same game a lot. I do like a lot of the Chessy players though. So I unsubbed.
Then I kept the excitement going for another year or two.
But now, I don't even think I'll play even if it is released.
Maybe over the winter... but then FOMO still rears it's head because if you miss a season... well, that's it. You don't get that stuff to take back to a home shard or pass on generationally.

It's not that it's a terrible idea. It's still great in theory if they can pull it off. I'm just no longer interested. I'm off playing games like Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy now. Every year UO gets older and older and I get reminded of how much of a grind literally everything is in the game.

About the only thing they did wrong was announce it so so so very early.
 

ShriNayne

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@Lore I agree, as always with Mesanna it was announced way too early and with too many promises, now they have yet again wasted all that anticipation and excitement. I still want to know though if you have to transfer off to keep your goodies are they going to allow everyone an extra character slot, because most everyone at this point has probably used all their character allowance on what they consider their 'home' shard. Most likely it will be like the EJ debacle all over again, they just won't have given any thought to practicalities.
 

Anon McDougle

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@Lore I agree, as always with Mesanna it was announced way too early and with too many promises, now they have yet again wasted all that anticipation and excitement. I still want to know though if you have to transfer off to keep your goodies are they going to allow everyone an extra character slot, because most everyone at this point has probably used all their character allowance on what they consider their 'home' shard. Most likely it will be like the EJ debacle all over again, they just won't have given any thought to practicalities.
More vaporware the current team can not even maintain the current stuff does anyone outside of Pawain honestly believe in NL?
 

skett

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I wish they would just put the weather on prodo and call NL done

:thumbsup::popcorn::beer::pint::banana::eyes::danceb::coco::mf_prop::party::pirate::juggle::hula:




:facepalm:
 

Veldrane

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Their target was Alpha in July (how the heck they've been in development this long and are just now thinking Alpha is an entirely separate line of discussion); here it is, the end of March, so we're roughly three to four months out and have heard... zip.

If they had something to demo, they'd been blowing up the forums, M&G, and have sent out a mont... er periodical newsletter. I'm not ready to call it yet, but the project manager in me wouldn't bet against a push on that July Alpha date again.
 

Keven2002

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I'm with ya @Veldrane. The total lack of updates doesn't typically bode well for a project and in my experience this is what you see on projects that phase out. I've seen several initiatives in my career that are a hot topic at first only to be a bit too much of an undertaking so by the time it actually starts progressing everyone has moved on and the project fades away in favor of the next hot project.

I've also seen a few projects where they say something like "Release is Q2 2020" and then it's pushed back like half a dozen times but eventually it is released (with a fizzle) like Q4 2024.

I think we are somewhere in between the two right now. If they were smart they would "release" Alpha on time as stated so that it shows they have stuck to at least one timeline; after all they are the ones really playing Alpha (and maybe a few hand picked regular players). All they'd need to do is show a couple "new" NL only type things and say there are several take aways they need to fix; that would buy them another 6-9months to release beta. If they push back Alpha, this project will likely turn into the first scenario I gave.
 

Keith of Sonoma

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I honestly think that, for Mesanna, New Legacy WILL, and SHOULD be the thing that get's her fired. Assuming it ever does actually come into fruition, the lack of planning, communication, and inability to put out anything resembling a reasonable time frame is all the proof we need that she is completely unfit to do the job she now holds. She is the textbook example of someone who has been promoted above her ability! But, hey, the cheating RMT "players" LOVE her. While she should be fired for that as well, it's a story for another day. :) Bottom line, I wouldn't even hire Mesanna to clean my house!
 

Frodo The Great

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The problem im having with all this is there is currently a game that needs alot of bug fixes, alot more to do, alot more fun and just looking into big time.. yet instead of looking into the current game that is actually full of players that LOVE it.. they decided to make something new? Now please tell me if im wrong BUT why oh why would you ever make something on this LARGE scale with such a small team.. Hear me out..

The easter event is lasting for 2 months.. so while im sat in my garden in the summer, with the kids i have my laptop out killing Bunnies. like really? this should be an April event ONLY.

There is SO much that could be done with the current UO to make it better and so much more fun.. at the moment they are focusing so much on this New Legacy they are giving us NOTHING in game. the weather didnt even change this year for christmas for snow? like really? thats only a small thing but its something you know? we are getting the same event all the time.. go into a dung kill for armor parts and then hand in for the same items (maybe 2 new) thats been in the others?

i dont want to seem like im ungreatful but something must change right? we are all paying monthly for this and nothing is even happening? atleast some news about New Legacy would help us all understand whats going on.

Please tell me if im wrong
 

Keven2002

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I completely agree. I think it's the right call that the eggs are pretty easy to come by and the reward prices are low which would make perfect sense to make this a 1 month only event. People should be able to get at least a few sets of earrings/spelbooks/etc in a month with a relatively easy way to get eggs... there is no need to keep this going 2 months.

Honestly I'd be fine with it being 2 months but the problem is that the Dev team seemingly takes off the entire summer so when this event ends June 1st, we likely aren't getting a new event until the earliest September but more likely it will be the Halloween event (October).
 

RockoNV

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Come on people, NL is delayed because of all the new events and fixes BS has been implementing.
 

petemage

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Eventually someone will ask about it at a future M&G and she will act like she never heard of NL before. Full circle and such..
 

Veldrane

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Are M&G still a thing?
The M&G is completely worthless. The answer to every question is either some clap back because Messana gets butt hurt over the question and takes it personally, they deflect the question and say they'll look into it, or they just flat say "no". Nothing of substance is ever provided in those things. It's just a method for the Devs to deflect and go "Hey look we're interacting with you guys:"

Players seem to be catching on to this as well as there is hardly anyone there anymore outside of the people with a major axe to grind or something brown on their nose
 

skett

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Id like to know when the new died fish skeletons will be added to Aquariums from the last M&G
 

Samhain

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Given how small the team is now, I'm surprised they have the resources to spend on something like this.
I have seen full blown open world games released with Beta AND fixes with just a solo creator...don't drink the Kool-Aid.
 

Samhain

Adventurer
I will admit to being a pessimist. But after coming back to UO about 4 years ago after over 12 years away, I was astonished to see how little had changed. Sure! there was High Seas and such, new content...but as far as game progression...nothing was changed. And after deciding to subscribe after testing EJ for a few months, I realized...it was even still full of the same bugs as when I played over a decade ago. But it seems to me (and this is just my observation), that all shards are dying off even more....( I had characters created on Chessy, Legends and Europa). I also notice that early mornings and evenings has Luna and Brit dying out sooner on Atlantic. We all must face the reality that all good things come to an end, and with the negligence, carelessness and unresponsiveness to players needs/requests along with unfixed issues (along with reverting attention to meaningless things instead of focusing attention on important things...i.e. targeting glacial pickaxes after 2366 years of them being around), I have a feeling things are going in a spiraling downward crash. Could it be the seasonal lull we are experiencing? Could it be people are tired of being lied to and waiting for content that quite frankly, may never come? Could it be people are tired of the SAME unoriginal dungeon hack-n-slash events. (kill 263782 of these monsters to get as many drops as you can, over and over and over and over, to turn in for the same pixels that you could get from a previous event)? If UO loses the people that are holding on to the nostalgia and play style it has to offer, UO loses it's subscriptions period. It's not like any new 'gamer' will be enticed to play this game above anything more modernized out there. I honestly (and unfortunately) do not see things going well. Even though Amazon didn't end up buying EA, you have to wonder what the business projection is and how many resources will be continuously allocated to this game that is NOT appealing to the new gamer or attracting new subscriptions. At the end of the day, it is all about business.
 

Keven2002

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So... it's currently July which isn't much past the timeframe given for the NL Alpha release but here we are without hearing anything about NL in the past 6 months (ish).

Is anyone surprised at this point?
 

Veldrane

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They aren't making their mid-year Alpha. Now someone doesn't want to face the music, and of course, her cheerleader squad will use this as their rally point to go, "OMG, see, this is why she doesn't give us updates because when she misses them, you guys are mean."

The opposite is the truth; bad news doesn't get better the longer it waits to be discussed. Regular updates showing progress, discussion of current struggles, and demos of completed work are how to prevent significant backlash when something gets delayed.
 

Keven2002

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They aren't making their mid-year Alpha. Now someone doesn't want to face the music, and of course, her cheerleader squad will use this as their rally point to go, "OMG, see, this is why she doesn't give us updates because when she misses them, you guys are mean."

The opposite is the truth; bad news doesn't get better the longer it waits to be discussed. Regular updates showing progress, discussion of current struggles, and demos of completed work are how to prevent significant backlash when something gets delayed.
Agreed. Being proactive about delays will at least show people the progress compared to what we have now was a 6 month window to release Alpha with no other details and now no communication after the self imposed deadline was missed. People don't know if it's just delayed for a few weeks because of a hiccup or if it's canceled because they stopped working on NL for something else. After so many delays (and nothing to show) with minimal updates of course people are going to be assume NL is vaporware.

As I've said in the past, I don't think we need weekly updates but a monthly update on the state of NL would go a long way and even if it was delayed 3 more months (but we still got updates) we could see where the issues were rather than just assuming it's vaporware. From my personal experience, it's usually only the people that are trying to coast (ie work like 2 hours a day) or are in over their head that do not provide status updates. If you are actually working and know what you are doing it takes 5 minutes to say "Over the past X weeks I've done Y and in the time until the next update I plan on doing Z". Meanwhile, we still haven't been told what the basics of the shard is yet and we were supposed to have Alpha by now; surely they know things like how skills are gained and quests are done.

At this point I can't tell if this is just textbook terrible project management or a really good job of drawing out collecting a paycheck for bare minimum production.
 
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Picus of Napa

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I've lost the point of this thread. Are we still talking about the revamped shard or is this a full rewrite.

They either have failed in the task because it was to large in scope or the expertise needed was missing. Given Bonnie's history of coding, I think I'm jesting here, I'd be shocked if this is ever going forward.

I still feel that they should have just ripped off all the cool stuff free shards have done. Facebook does it, why not UO.
 
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