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You should have seen the Slasher during beta... he didn't need to be in pairs. He just rolled up on people and *KA-POW!* If you recalled away he would follow you.After 75? Slasher will spawn in pairs in your house randomly for a year and won't leave, and say goodbye to access to any city on any character except Bucs Den, as the guards will kill you on site.
I use the phrase "just a game" to refer to the fact that a game has no real consequence. If I beat you in a game you are still you. You still have the same job. You still have the same home. You still have the same family. Nothing important to you has been lost... unless you have a gambling problem but that is another matter.First off, a personal thing I have trouble with is when people say UO is just a game. That's true but this statement seems to try to undermine the fact that real people play it, making UO a real interacting environment of real people who have real feelings.
I am personally uncomfortable with that analogy. Designers are only "gods" insomuch as they create a world, however artificial it may be, but we do it to entertain real people like you. My understanding of God is that He is not there to entertain me. Game designers are a form of entertainer in my humble but informed opinion.The designers and creators of this world are essentially God and who not better to learn from than he? God, even if you do not believe in God, we must believe, indeed, we are creating a world, so take into account how our world works and why.
Yes, but in life, and in UO more than in other games, players have free will. The original creators of UO obviously thought it was important for an individual player to make their own decision not to murder or steal… otherwise the game would not have allowed it. Being “Good” has no meaning without the opportunity and incentive to do otherwise. As many have stated already, the problem with the system as originally implemented is that being a bully and a jackass was easy-mode.What happens to people that do things like this? Well, we kill them or we lock them up. That's why you go Red, so we can kill you. That's why the thief turns grey. They are both very harmful for any society. In fact, it will kill itself off because the designer of the world never intended to fill his world with murdering thiefs.
This has to be done VERY carefully. Making a game more fun for one person by making it less fun for everyone else is a really bad idea.Factions is a good idea...but again, it does not allow "evil" to be evil. It allows "evil" to fight against other people that signed up for the same in game device...but there is no "good" or "evil" there. It's just dressed up consensual PvP.
The idea of "evil" in a game like UO is something that cannot be consensual. There has to be victims. ...
There are other ways to be bad than murder, but any non-consensual pvp will continue to be confined to Fel. I think one challenge going forward is to make being in Fel more fun... not just for pwning crafters.But what control could players have in their towns? Unless these take place in Fel, there can be no actual control. And if they take place in Fel...they will fail because there is no incentive for anyone besides those directly involved to use them.
I don't think it would be appropriate or even reasonable for me to second guess a decision made in 2003. I know that a lot of the decisions made at that time were being influenced by Diablo 2, which was a major competitor. I think we all can look back and go, "that should have been done differently" but as a live game designer, it is my responsibility to work on the game as it is today and try to make improvements....but I am afraid that we are all hamstrung by the social barriers that exist in the game today. It is a shame that you were not a part of the Dev team when Trammel was being discussed.
I'd really like to get your thoughts on that issue...but I will understand if you cannot provide them here.
I've been thinking about this idea, and I find it interesting. Not for UO, but just in general, perhaps for a game that I do in the future.5) Perma-death for murderers - A reason for people to band together and hunt down these killers. There should be consequences to killing people.
6) Fix Factions - A reason to pvp without having to murder.
*considers what one might be able to do while dead*Another example, would be The Void. In Trammel I believe The Void was defeated but in Fel The Void still lives, as far as I know. So, that is what I meant by all costs, simply not being able to doing anything as a ghost but that wasn't always the case. I do remember holding a house place with a ghost but basically once your dead, all you can do is watch.
It's going to be a for players. In fact, we **intend** to start it next week with some of the faction stuff we have been working on. Please keep in mind, this is the beginning of the faction revamp, we just need to kind of vet it to the players to see if we are going in a direction that is fun. It will probably only be on the experimental shard for several publishes as we continue to develop it. We've been working on this project "on the side" for about 3 publishes and we don't want to keep going down this road if none of the PVPers want to go with us.Just to clarify, if you would be so kind, is this "experimental shard" an internal only shard for you devs to play around with or are you saying a new public shard is going to be coming soon where these experimental things are going to take place?