Lothar,
I like you. I do.
I just get combative when it comes to these issues because they mean something to me, and because I have been at it for so long. Many on the shard have.
I do not hold your hope that people who have left this shard for other shards or other games will return. A few might, but too many have left.
If the shard is to live again, we must find a way to make it attractive to new players.
Several issues face us in this endeavor. I had told myself I would not re-hash this, as I am tired of giving my ideas freely, only to have them and all the good ideas of the players of Siege ignored. But, I will do it for you because I respect you as someone who has called Siege home for longer than I've played UO.
So, here goes.
First, level the playing field. This can be done by removing PBD's or making sure that everyone has one.
Which would attract more players? Certainly, a shard with no blessings or insurance of any kind would bring those looking for a challenge. But, would they stay? Would they stay when they lost armor, jewels, weps, mounts, regs, etc... with every death?
Or would they be more attracted if they were able to hold on to something. One weapon, one jewel, one hat, or a simple fishing pole?
I believe they would prefer to be able to keep one thing. It would make the quest for a great weapon, or the hours in doom, or a 7AE gift worth having.
If the poll we were promised long ago by Binky had ever materialized, we might know definitively the answer to this question. As is, we only have our opinions.
I do feel that the inability to hold on to even one item would make it very difficult to play certain characters.
Your character and your playstyle for example might be ok. As a fencer you have a wide variety of fast, one handed weapons available to you. You heal with bandages and spirit speak, both of those are of course not affected by the loss of blessings.
But, characters like archers and macers do not have the wide variety of fast, one handed pvp weapons available that fencers do. Swordsmen are limited as well. For those who don't have SE. The fastest sword is a katana which is far slower than a dagger or even a kryss. Actually, most swordsmen use cleavers, which of course, are not craftable by runics. So, while your template with fencing, bandages, and spirit speak might be ok with no blessings, other templates like macers, and archers, and pallys who rely on FC, would be adversely affected.
So again, we need to think about what would attract the most new players. Would a wider variety of templates do this? It's my opinion that it would.
And what about playstyle? I don't know how much you play the shard these days. I do know that you participated in my holiday tournament, and that you pked me not too long ago outside Destard. /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif So, you obviously do play. There are those of us though who play every night. Its nothing for me to die 4 or 5 times a week. Out of those, I generally lose everything I am carrying 3 times.
The one thing I dont lose is my weapon. Its not overpowering, not nearly as nice as the warfork you often use, but it fits my template well, and in 2 plus years on the shard it is the only weapon I have found with FC, UBWS, a speed which allows me to swing once per second (with stamina increase armor), a hit spell effect, and HLD which I find very helpful for a dexxer.
You see, when you PVP a macer, a pally macer, your choices in weapons are a bit more limited. I'm sure you can understand that dieing as often as I do, losing my weapons with every death, I would pretty quickly run out of viable PVP weps. Of course, I could drop macing and become a fencer, even drop my shield and chug potions. But, that is what everyone is doing, and I enjoy the variety.
Otherwise, I could play more like I imagine you do, where you don't die more than once in a while and can therefore retain your gear far longer.
Again, what would attract more new players? I believe a variety of viable templates and playstyles would be attractive to the largest number of people.
Aside from PBD's, what blessings should stay or be removed? I believe that the 7AE items should be unblessed. I believe they should never had been blessed on this shard, but that cow is out of the barn.
The presence of blessed 7AE items is a deterrent to new players joining Siege. It is something like PBD's, which some people have and some people can't get. The items should certainly remain, but their blessed properties need to be removed.
Faction blessings may not seem to be a deterrent to new players as they are available to anyone who joins factions. I do think faction blessings should be removed though, as they present a balance issue among current Siege residents.
Those who spent hours in doom, exploiting the faction bug with the Dark Father, have been able to gain multiple artifacts and sell them for large sums of gold. For those people, it is nothing to buy barbed runic kits and go around with blessed uber armor at all times.
That represents a deterrent to new players. Imagine coming on to Siege to get away from insurance and then running in to Revvo or Antioch. Every single thing Antioch wears is blessed, and Revvo only wears one unblessed item at any time. They are not the only ones.
We agree on this, faction blessings are a detriment to balanced pvp and should be removed. On a shard where insurance is not supposed to exist, it should not be available to only the super rich.
Ok, so thats my position. We agree that 7AE items should be unblessed and that faction blessings should be removed. Our reasons may differ, but we do agree.
What about other blessings? Like spellbooks, runebooks, ethys and vet rewards? If we go back to the original question, what would bring the greatest number of players to Siege then I believe those items should stay as they are. I would hate to move to a shard where I could never ride an ethy or wear a reward cloak. Likewise, how would new players feel about losing their spellbooks constantly or not being able to keep a rune to their home safely?
Those items do not unbalance combat, and are available to anyone.
That I believe is all that is on the table at the moment. PBD's for all or none, and the other blessings. We agree on everything but the PBD's and on that we will just have to agree to disagree.
Now, I am tired of typing so a few last quick suggestions to bring more people to the shard. This is for Wilki, not you Lothar, although you are welcome to read!
First, skill gain needs to be sped up. ROT is a good system, but raising or eliminating the daily stat caps would allow new people to come to the shard and compete more quickly.
Second, everyone should be allowed one house on Siege in addition to their house on a production shard. I know that this might lead to some absentee owners, but on the whole, I believe it would increase the shard population. There are many housing spots available, and to new players, the inability to place a home without losing what they worked so hard for on another shard is a HUGE obstacle.
Third, support for this shard must be improved. The best way for this shard, and for UO to get new players is for current players to open new accounts and/or invite their friends to join the game. The dramatic decrease in shard population at the moment is the direct result of OSI/EA ignoring us for so long. Fixing the PBD/blessings issue would be a great step toward righting that wrong, but we will have other problems in the future. They can't be ignored for years on end as this one has been, or all the effort of everyone involved will be wasted.
Lothar you and I do disagree about one thing, but we agree about a great many more. At the heart of it, both of us want to see Siege thrive.
I invite you and other Siege players to once again post your best ideas here (if you have not already). You may have done it ten times before, but I feel that I've popped the cork on the bottle so you may as well have another drink.
Evermore
