This is a repost of mine from one of the other numerous f2p threads:
Those of you who keep talking about f2p is the way to go, put your money where your mouth is and start laying out f2p options and packages. Don't be vague. I've provided a link to information on the trial restrictions at the bottom of this post. Use it. Show us what you think an f2p account could be. I may believe that UO has bigger problems than payment options, but I'm willing to consider it and spend a few minutes laying out specifics.
Full monthly subscription ($10 - $13 depending on payment option) required for the following:
- Ownership or co-ownership of a house
- Own vendors
- Own boats
- Participate in guilds or factions
- Have over 85 in a skill and have more than 500 points in skills
- Use any scrolls or soulstones/fragments
- Mining anything above iron or lumberjacking anything above regular wood
- Fishing up anything better than basic fish
- Obtaining color BODS
- Having more than 2 characters on a shard (in keeping with other f2p games)
- Have more than 75,000 in gold (similar to other f2p games)
- Have more than 60 items in a bank box (similar to other f2p games)
- Use checks and commodity deeds
Everything listed for the full monthly subscription above is both to keep existing customers from feeling ripped off, and is to keep the scripters from being able to do some of their scripting on free accounts. The above is also to provide a very clear point for people to decide if it's worth a monthly subscription or not. Finally, it's to ensure that subscriptions/revenue don't drop - the goal is supposed to be additional players, not a dropping of revenue from existing players. A drop in revenue would be bad news for UO.
Each f2p package below is independent of one another. Obviously, anything that is listed in the packages below would be barred on a completely free account.
Package #1 (Montly payment of $4)
- Allows f2p account to be friended to a house
- Allows f2p accounts to buy from vendors
- Allows f2p accounts to visit Felucca, T2A, Malas, Ilshenar
- Allows f2p accounts to do quests
- Allows f2p accounts to board ships
- Allows f2p characters to be created using elves
- Allows f2p characters to have up to 75,000 in gold (free limit - 35,000 in gold)
Package #2 (Monthly payment of $4)
- Allows f2p accounts to have up to 60 items in a bank box (free limit - 30 items)
- Allows f2p accounts to have up to 70 items in their backpack (free limit - 40 items)
- Allows f2p accounts to have higher than 70 in a skill (capped at 85)
- Allows f2p accounts to have amount of skills up to 500 points
- Allows f2p accounts to obtain anything more than basic loot
- Allows f2p accounts to use bags of sending, pet summoning balls, etc.
It is based in part on a
thread from last year detailing trial account restrictions:
Did some searching and this is all I could find on what limits there are on trial accounts....
Removed the 15 day character age requirement for house placement
Players are not allowed to place a house while on a trial account
Players are not allowed to co-own or be traded a house while on a trial account
Trial accounts have travel restrictions –
Cannot visit Felucca dungeons or Felucca T2A
Trial Accounts have the following resource restrictions -
Will only receive basic ores and logs (iron, plain logs) even if they'd otherwise qualify for better types
Will not receive sand or stone when mining
Trial Account Misc. restrictions -
Will not receive ML rewards for resource gathering (jewels, ingredients, and white pearls while fishing)
Will not receive rewards, monster kill points, or virtue points from champ spawns
Will not get scrolls while doing champ spawns
Will not gain Justice virtue points for killing murderers
Cannot use Valor or Justice virtues
Cannot Protect or be Protected by another player
Can not join factions or faction aligned guilds
If in a guild they will be removed from the guild, if their guild joins a faction
Cannot use Scrolls of Alacrity, Power Scrolls, Stat Scrolls, or Scrolls of Transcendence
Cannot use Commodity Deeds
Cannot do Community Collections
Cannot use Soulstones or fragment soulstones
Cannot use Pet summoning balls
Cannot use Bracelets of Binding
Cannot use the Bag of Sending
Cannot do any repeatable quests – even if they are normally repeatable
Cannot acquire BOD’s
(also can't have vendors)
The reason why I based my packages on the trial restrictions is partly because the mechanisms are already in place and that simplifies things, and also I'm trying to keep the f2p accounts from losing some of the sandbox aspects of UO, while at the same time preserving the value of the subscriptions and keeping revenue high enough that UO doesn't get in trouble with EA.
burma shaving with better ideas ...
won't exactly put UO in a "unique" position
OLD persons game be that raggedy UO ... old and perennially busted
