The population of UO has changed

[Obsidian]

I like the game as it is. Why are we arguing to change it back? We all play it and enjoy our time spent in Sosaria. I have no problem with enhancing group participation, but don't make it so a solo adventurer cannot succeed and enjoy their immersion.

 

[G.v.P]

Few options to fix UO:

http://i62.***********/68hkhy.png
made this in paint, feel free to print out and bump map for our current playerbase

build time machine car from trash we send to trash barrel

terminate current gate spell and make a brand new one in which we can displace time

invest in Iris 2.0 or some sort of working 3D client so promotional pictures like this one live up to actual gameplay (I won't post actual Iris 2.0 pictures here, and Iris 2.0 looks far from perfect--I have never used it so I'm not sure--but it's sharper than the EC).

make bards as useful as they were in Star Wars Galaxies by having day-lasting (real time) buffs just from listening to bards in UO play (we have all of the audio files needed for players to play actual notes in UO, but no way to trigger these notes in game).

introduce a new "repair window" through context menu in which a crafter can securely repair items for another player. have the context menu have a default "do not accept flag" unless a player turns it on, and have it only work if by a forge (to prevent griefing).

keep spellweaving the way it is so people have something left to complain about. we'd get complacent, otherwise. but! I have been asking for a party system option in which you can split loot without breaking party for YEARS. in a low population game, being able to make a party with random people and not worry about sharing loot would be a great boon for this game IMO. otherwise, the party system is intended only for friends...which is hardly a party in my opinion. what's a good party without meeting someone new? ;P

 

[G.v.P]

Not quite sure when I implied that the game is dead to me. Just sharing my observations. Then again, you've been here since all the way back in August...you are AWESOME!!!...la

they did that because no one plays Siege I mean they ought to give us a third house for Origin and a fourth for Oceania

 

[Tina Small]

I think as the UO playerbase has aged, a lot of us have found that our playing time has been squeezed and shifted significantly from when we were younger. As a result, if we've felt that it was important to continue as members of our old guilds instead of quitting and joining other guilds that might have more members and might seem more active, we've had to adjust to many times playing UO solo because our schedules just don't mesh with our guildmates' schedules as easily or frequently as they might have done in the past.

For many of us, we're also spending more and more time working on developing characters on shards other than the ones we originally called "home." This may be because we enjoy doing EM events on various shards and then sending the rewards back to our "home" shards or selling them. Or we may spend that time building characters all over the place because we enjoy the feeling of accomplishment that it gives us and because it opens up more opportunities to pair up with guildmates to do do things with our low-level characters that would be far too easy and less satisfying than if done with our "finished" characters on our "home" shards.

With the current RtB promotion going on, I've seen one old guildmate return and actually activate one of his several accounts and pay for full-fledged character transfers to move a couple of characters from Baja back to GL. He's also letting a friend who has never played UO before use one of the accounts to train some characters and has told me that the friend seems to be pretty well hooked on UO now. My old guildmate's younger brother finally managed this week to get some help from EA or Broadsword to locate his old account and now, hopefully, he will also soon be playing again and will perhaps activate his account as well. Unfortunately, whether or not that happens is a little bit in doubt as many of his developed characters are on Baja and someone is probably going to have to pony up for some character transfers at some point to get their little group playing together more easily on Great Lakes.

I think we really need to see the RtB promotions happen a lot more frequently, perhaps as often as once per year. I also think that it would help if full-fledged character transfers saw at least a small drop in their price. There are many people out there who could potentially return to UO and I doubt that the majority of them are anywhere close to being able to qualify for shard shields to help with moving characters around to where old friends might now be playing.

It might also make sense to run a sale on High Seas, SA, and bank/character slot increases around the same time as a further incentive for potential returnees to upgrade their accounts and be able to more fully experience all that UO has to offer.

Maybe with UO being on Steam sometime in the near future, we will see slightly more frequent RtB promotions. Maybe someone will even see fit to come up with a promotion that packages some of the upgrades with a one- or three-month reactivation of an old, dormant account.

I think it would also be extremely helpful if the official UO website picked up and expanded on an idea that JC the Builder used on the uoguide.com website here: http://www.uoguide.com/Return_to_Britannia and here: http://www.uoguide.com/Changelog . How helpful pages like these are to returnees! And yet, how many of us are even aware these pages exist?

I think, as Lady Storm said above, the dev team is trying to implement some good changes. I'm sure this time of the year always makes them feel like they're working in a pressure cooker because of so many old, established "important dates" being compressed into such a small wind of time. Hopefully after Christmas they will get to breathe a bit and we will see more give and take with the players and ideas on how to rebuild UO's population can be explored and refined and brought to fruition.

In poking around on the Dark Age of Camelot websight, I noticed a couple of things there that I am hopeful will also apply to UO:
- The return of a periodic newsletter for the game.
- The return of leaderboards over the next few months.
- In the near future, game logo T-shirt availability for non-US customers.
- A "casual group finder."
- In-game mail.
- The continuation of creating in-house "How-To" videos to help returning players get back on their feet.
- Leveraging live player-streaming and player-made videos about the game.
- FAQs with patch notes that address some of the "why?" that goes along with the "what" in the patch notes.
- Guild and social management tools.
- And last but not least, new responsibilities for the old producer of DAoC, Talal Saad. He announced in late September that he is shifting to a new job where "rather than serving at the helm of one particular game, [his] responsibility will be to act as advocate and to use [his] time and energy to focus on how Broadsword can have a bigger impact, provide more investment, and achieve greater success for multiple products." [http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/article/passing-torch]

Sorry this is in my usual long, rambly style. I guess I just couldn't resist the urge to stick up my hand and say, "Hey, wait a minute there.... Here are some thoughts from someone who isn't necessarily a 'bitter old vet,' since I haven't quite reached the 10-year mark in UO." I'm not sure I would have stuck with UO if I'd started playing it in the early days. Yes, I've tried Siege and I still have houses there and playing there for a while and building characters there was a good experience and kept me from completely quitting UO at one point. But as someone who doesn't really enjoy PvPing for a variety of reasons (not as agile/quick as I once was, don't have tons of gold for getting good gear, etc.), Siege just isn't that appealing to me, especially now with VvV being active there.

Anyway, just throwing some ideas into the thread, for whatever they're worth. I think the key to getting UO's population to go up is getting old players to come back and stick around. I'm not sure that is something that the devs can manage all by themselves. I think we as players can help them with coming up with ideas for improving UO and making it much more accessible and enjoyable for returnees. Fodder for a different thread, I guess.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

they did that because no one plays Siege I mean they ought to give us a third house for Origin and a fourth for Oceania

And yet the shard is still pretty empty...so the people who do want to make their primary server can't have aa good housing location because someone dropped a plot and only comes back to refresh it...la

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

I think the key to getting UO's population to go up is getting old players to come back and stick around. I'm not sure that is something that the devs can manage all by themselves. I think we as players can help them with coming up with ideas for improving UO and making it much more accessible and enjoyable for returnees. Fodder for a different thread, I guess.

Agreed, I think its a two lane road. Not only do the players need to be involved but the devs need to help...la

 

[Tina Small]

Agreed, I think its a two lane road. Not only do the players need to be involved but the devs need to help...la

I'd really love to see a few more people post here in UHall about what they are seeing this month with RtB returnees. Which of their old friends came back and seem to be sticking around? What kind of hurdles are those people trying to jump over? What would make them stay a while longer? Is having to pay a subscription fee to be able to place a house enough incentive to pay the subscription fee or do they need something else?

What kind of information do people need to get back in the swing of things? Would they rather read that kind of information in a written guide or get the basics of it in a video? Or would it work to have someone hold in-game "classes"? Would they join a "class" using Ventrillo or Teamspeak? Would Broadsword even consider helping out with doing something like "classes" by putting permanently charged farspeakers in existing classroom-style buildings and plunking down forges, anvils, soulforges? Or maybe putting farspeakers in the Haven arenas and in the benches so they could be used more easily as classrooms?

Could we get some help from Stratics to start a new "tips" thread like the one Sarsmi polished up for us a few years ago? Then maybe Broadsword could add it to the official website, where it really does belong.

The possibilities are absolutely endless for what could be done to significantly assist returnees and that don't require revamping UO.

 

[MalagAste]

All interesting ideas. One thing I can say about people not wanting to give up guilds that are ancient.... we don't h ave to. With the Alliance system we can be in a very large alliance made of tiny guilds. For some of us this works really well. You still get to stay in your guild and your old guild still remains so old returning players can find you... but now you are part of a larger group ......

As far as the rest goes I have no clue how to make things better except to have the DEV's keep working on bugs and improving the game play. Perhaps VvV is a step in the right direction making PvP fun again..... maybe it will last maybe it won't.

One thing they need to quit doing is making Mobs that are just kitchen sink mobs with megga HP... Give them some intelligence. Some of the new moves for mobs introduced in the Minax invasions were pretty good. Some not so much. Many of them required a group and still require a group to work on.

And sadly I agree that looks have quite a bit to do with the games appeal..... and honestly I have to wonder if we will ever see that day when they give us those improved graphics they have been working on. I think what would be nice would be if they could show us a sampling of the work they are doing that would be great. Higher rez art is something we need for sure.

Another thing would be for them to go over the map with a fine tooth comb and clean it up.... there are too many area's with tiles where the shouldn't be.... looks very bad. Small things can sometimes make a big difference. When folk look at the game the first thing they see is the aged graphics... any improvements to that will go a very long way.

Sadly most gamers today can't see past the looks to the content. UO's strength is in it's box.... the sandbox nature and community have always been what makes UO better than any other game... killing it's community by making the game a soloists game is destroying it's very foundation. Focus should return to community. To finding ways to make it more beneficial to working together rather than going it alone. Make being in a party a good thing... perhaps give bonus to loot when in a party... and like someone else mentioned put in individual loot to parties... we now have individual loot extend that to be while your in party as well. Give parties a bonus to damage... Pool their luck... Put in more mobs that require a group. But unlike Exodus don't make it so hard to get the keys.

With the City Loyalty system give special recipes to loyal crafters. Things only they can make. Special forges that can only be crafted by expert smith/carpenters from Minoc, special chairs or tables that can only be crafted by expert carpenters of Yew, Fine stonework benches only craftable by carpenters from Trinsic..... etc. Quit introducing neat furniture that can only be obtained in some silly deed.... let crafters craft. Give us more recipes and stop putting things that should be craftable into one time only deeds. Leave gifts as something that is super nice like the vase of Roses..... and let us craft things for ourselves out of our choices of wood and stone and such.

 

[Thrakkar]

4. Eliminate the ability to create repair deeds, when what we have is gone, they're gone.

This way things will eventually wear out and leave the game. We will have to do repairs, craft, find people to make what we cant.

I agree, that it was better back then without repair deeds. But you have also to admit, that it was a different time back then. More players -> higher population -> smiths standing at "The Hammer and Anvil"-forge in north brit, waiting for customers. These times are over.
Every change by the devs was done to keep the game running. There were some good choices and there were some bad choices, but the game is still alive, so that has to mean something. It's easy to look back and count the changes, you don't like personally, but you also have to view it from a devs perspective. They should see the big picture (at least I hope so), and they also know, that no change will make all players happy.

 

[HugsNKissesUO]

Thank you for sharing *rolls eyes* ...la

Sorry, I thought we were stating the obvious *rolls eyes* ...la

 

[Aran]

1. Kill insurance.

2. over time lower the intensities on looted items (yes arties too, especially!) to where a GM smith/tailor/imbuer can make slightly better.

3. Quit bringing in ridiculously overpowered mobs, and focus more on the hunt than the kill.

4. Eliminate the ability to create repair deeds, when what we have is gone, they're gone.

This way things will eventually wear out and leave the game. We will have to do repairs, craft, find people to make what we cant. You cant turn back time completely, but you can reset the clock back a bit. Back to the "If you cant afford to lose it, don't wear it" lifestyle.

Sure will level alll the chars out some. Everything lately has needed charts and spreadsheets to work...refining, reforging, etc. We want and need m ore fun, more interactions, not more engineering and math tests.

Can you not think of any ideas that aren't "NERF IT ALL"?

 

[Yadd of Legends]

I am not a fan of the global chats either.

Granted people have found ways around it with IRC, Skype, Vent, etc... but the global chats just make it too easy and it takes a lot from the game. We used to have taverns that people would gather at to talk. Not anymore.

I don't want to stand around and talk. I like global chat when I need to communicate. Just saying.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Can you not think of any ideas that aren't "NERF IT ALL"?

No

 

[Tranquility]

And sadly I agree that looks have quite a bit to do with the games appeal..... and honestly I have to wonder if we will ever see that day when they give us those improved graphics they have been working on. I think what would be nice would be if they could show us a sampling of the work they are doing that would be great. Higher rez art is something we need for sure.

I agree the games looks and appeal is sorely lacking and in need to a serious revamp.

High Resolution would be a fantastic addition to Ultima Online. If you recall last months Q&A @Mesanna her last words on the subject were "It's not a lost cause" .

Those words do very little to instill confidence in me that we're EVER going to see such an update under her leadership; despite it being promised over 5 years ago when they pulled the plug on KR.

Instead of it being the #1 Priority it's seems quite the opposite with the "It's not a lost cause statement". With Mesanna at the helm unfortunately graphics don't seem to be a priority because we've seen absolutely nothing for well over 5 years now.

It's a shame really because looks and appeal go a long way when it comes to attracting new players especially younger players.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

More communication from the developers would certainly help. Nothing against statics but the uo team needs to speak to the player base through social media and on uo.com...la

 

[Viquire]

An investment of some sort needs to be made to support guilds. Its very unfortunate that at the beginning of RTB there were tables and chairs set up for guilds to meet and help returning players in multiple locati0ns. And every time I wandered by any of them on any shard they were completely unused.

Groups of characters interacting with each other is why we were so robust, and how we have made it for so long. The problem, I think, is those groups, by in large, are facing inward at this point.

 

[MalagAste]

More communication from the developers would certainly help. Nothing against statics but the uo team needs to speak to the player base through social media and on uo.com...la

This has been a sore subject for many on both sides. DEV's don't like to hear negative feedback so they don't like to come to the forums... they don't often reply and seem to be overly secretive regarding things. Also extremely vague with everything they say. Which makes the playerbase feel left out and in the dark... they gather resentment thinking the DEV's don't care. It's a vicious cycle.

Players want to be heard and feel they can't voice their concerns or opinions on Stratics as well for fear of being banned. Which will leave them with no way to be heard at all. The actual "help" site tells you to post on the Forums to ask the DEV's for help yet there are no "official" forums for UO... the only forum is the "unofficial/official" forum which is Stratics... Which again vicious cycle. If you don't carefully word your frustrations then you get banned. Not really a good thing if you want to get a point across and of course while I know that negativity is unwanted sometimes it's required. Although I will say giving negative feedback just to be negative as some folk are... is counter productive. Giving negative feedback with proposed solutions or ideas to solve the issue goes a whole lot further... or mixing your feedback with some positive feedback might go further.

But as a general rule many folk I know won't visit Stratics anymore because they feel their opinions are either unheard, unwelcome or they feel they are attacked for having an opinion that isn't the "norm" or isn't 100% glowing regarding the game or the DEV's.

Sadly the lack of communication over the years along with some of the DEV's blatantly insulting the players along with players doing the same to DEV's has created a major lack of any communication at all... leaving players frustrated and feeling like the DEV's don't listen and don't care about the players or the game.

Having been taking part in the Alpha and Beta of SOE's EQ Landmark I'm seeing what some serious open communication can do... and it's really been pretty amazing.... though I will say they seem to listen to their "favorites" more than others they do listen and seem to be genuinely concerned for the players... Something UO has been lacking for YEARS.

I do like that they have been coming IN-GAME and doing Q&A sessions. This is a very good thing. I would like to see more things like that. I'd like to see more letters telling us what is happening..... what's in the works.... how things are coming along with some of the "known" developments like the art update... how soon and when we might look to see the next thing like when are we looking at a Pet revamp?? Next year.... 2 or 3 years from now?? Some idea would be better than NO clue. Hearing it's in the works is nice... but can we have some input??? Or are we strictly out of the loop and they just add whatever without getting any player opinions? Kinda like the additions of the Arenas. Anyway thats my opinion.

 

[Yadd of Legends]

Isn't it possible, or even likely, that they can't really say when a graphics update is coming because they won't know how long it will take - or even if it will work - until they are deep into the code? Even if they are working on it, they might be hesitant to say in case they find out halfway through that's it's just not feasible?

 

[Tranquility]

Isn't it possible, or even likely, that they can't really say when a graphics update is coming because they won't know how long it will take - or even if it will work - until they are deep into the code? Even if they are working on it, they might be hesitant to say in case they find out halfway through that's it's just not feasible?

Well it's been 5 years...

One would think in that amount of time some progress would have been made. Instead the game has regressed from high resolution to low resolution.

I think in the Q&A Mesanna states something along the lines "I just need to call so and so" or something similar to get them working on it.

I'm thinking to myself "Really!? What are you waiting for?" The call should have been made a long time ago.

It's obviously not a priority for her and her vision of UO which is why I often wish someone else was at the helm who does have a vision for UO's future that isn't dependent on or revolve around graphics and a client almost 20 years old now.

Maybe I'm wrong maybe she does have a plan to actually put in high resolution art upgrade.

She got the vendor search in and I never believed that would happen.

 

[Captn Norrington]

I'd really love to see a few more people post here in UHall about what they are seeing this month with RtB returnees. Which of their old friends came back and seem to be sticking around? What kind of hurdles are those people trying to jump over? What would make them stay a while longer?

My guild on Atlantic has recruited 9 RTB people so far, of those, 1 is living the dream re-living their childhood UO memories, and the other 8 were having a hard time adjusting to the "ok so I need armor....I'll go buy armor.....WHAT!?!?! armor costs THAT much now!?!?!" situation.

Once they discovered shame loot and other free gear with decent properties, they calmed down a bit, and began to thoroughly enjoy themselves exploring the world.

One narrowly avoided getting scammed, he had a 100m server birth item in his bank box, tried to sell it to get other stuff, and some guy lied to him, saying that that the Blackthorn garb epaulettes were "super rare" and worth much more than the server birth. People in general chat and guild chat saved him.

Of the 9 people, 7 have already said they plan to stay a few months, the other 2 are undecided.

3 Play enhanced client and 6 play classic client.

The general consensus was that they would be more inclined to stay longer if they saw an active community, and there were enough people to hunt with, hang out with, and randomly make new friends along the way.

 

[popps]

Well it's been 5 years...

One would think in that amount of time some progress would have been made. Instead the game has regressed from high resolution to low resolution.

It likely is just me, but personally, I do not understand why there is from many so much emphasys on Graphics....

To me, content is paramount.

I could have a game that looks like real life, I mean, the best Graphics EVER, but if it had empty content, too few things to do and not much flexibility of gameplay, I could never ever get interested.

Sure, I'd try it out, I'd even say WOW, this game looks terrific, but then after a short while I would surely shelf it.....

On the other end, a game like Ultima Online with its outdated graphics keeps amazing me after so many years thanking to the HUGE vastity of content it has, the enormous number of things one can do, crafting, house customizing, hunting, and on and on and on....

Who cares if the graphics is outdated, it is the vastness of content and things to do, flexibility of gameplay which make Ultima Online for me worth to play....

Sure, better graphics would be a bonus if it came, but if it had to come at the expense of more new content added, no thanks, I'd rather prefer developers time be invested into making Ultima Online even more deep, filled of things to do and vast areas to explore....

I am definately not a graphics player, I guess.....

 

[MalagAste]

It likely is just me, but personally, I do not understand why there is from many so much emphasys on Graphics....

To me, content is paramount.

I could have a game that looks like real life, I mean, the best Graphics EVER, but if it had empty content, too few things to do and not much flexibility of gameplay, I could never ever get interested.

Sure, I'd try it out, I'd even say WOW, this game looks terrific, but then after a short while I would surely shelf it.....

On the other end, a game like Ultima Online with its outdated graphics keeps amazing me after so many years thanking to the HUGE vastity of content it has, the enormous number of things one can do, crafting, house customizing, hunting, and on and on and on....

Who cares if the graphics is outdated, it is the vastness of content and things to do, flexibility of gameplay which make Ultima Online for me worth to play....

Sure, better graphics would be a bonus if it came, but if it had to come at the expense of more new content added, no thanks, I'd rather prefer developers time be invested into making Ultima Online even more deep, filled of things to do and vast areas to explore....

I am definately not a graphics player, I guess.....

While I'm inclined to agree that Graphics do not a game make... I must also concede that after playing EQ Landmark for awhile some of the stuff there is soooo much more than here that I'm torn. Such beauty in some of the other games... I hate that we can't have that too. Also the design and deco in Landmark is so overwhelming and wonderful that I get rather disgusted that I can't do some of those things in UO. The ability to manipulate objects.... the land and everything there is just amazing. I wish I could fuse the two games into one. Keep all that I love of UO... the combat, the world... the towns, the community... the fact that it's not a leveler game... the freedom of UO... and combine that with the technology of Landmarks world creativity... The way they handle plots and land... The depth of that world combined with UO would be truly the best game available anywhere. But alas we are trapped in the 90's.... *sighs*

 

[Yadd of Legends]

Well, I loved Skyrim, went through it twice, loved the graphics - but it was the gameplay that kept me going. Witcher 2 - beautiful - but again, it was the story and the gameplay that made me finish it. At the other end of the graphics spectrum, I recently spent about 40 hours playing Might and Magic 8 for the third time. Those graphics are totally primitive, but there's something charming about it, and the gameplay is so addictive you get absorbed into the world despite the blocky sprites. UO graphics aren't very sharp, but they're very clever and actually pretty realistic, not cartoonish like some games. A character riding a horse looks like a character riding a horse, not a cartoon. They're believable. That's what counts. That's what keeps me playing. On the other hand, I like eye candy as much as the next person, and if it's all possible to sharpen the resolution of the graphics in UO, I'd love to see it happen.

 

[Stickypaws]

The graphics need an update. But how many failed attempts have they made now? 3D (Third Dawn) looked OK at the time but was not a big enough jump. KR looked fuzzy and was never finished. Enhanced Clients not been touched since it came out except with that Pincos rubbish. Coloured pets! 5 years and look at the state of coloured Hiryus!

A modern client would give me hope of UO attracting an actual population again. As it stands with just 2D and a never finished EC I have no hope of enough new players, no hope of a bigger player base, and only 2D, I see UO's player base dwindling as the vets leave one by one. After 20 years of online gaming I do not really wish to invest my time into a game I have no hope for the future for.

 

[Aran]

I don't want UO anymore if they make it so I can't play the only client that I care about, exactly how it's been since I started playing in 2000. I don't want new graphics, I don't want a new interface. I play UO because it's ****ing UO, not WoW2.0 Isometric Edition.

 

[azmodanb]

im having a blast since coming back i think crafting is great.. and you can make great cash making weapons and starter suits and big money making high end suits...

goes hand in hand with the new loot.. which are great for fitting into a suit or making a starter suit of your own in days to get you up and going.

my first suit coming back was brittle and cursed. no time i was in something that would not fall off and keeps getting better

uo is on an up swing imo.. if they had this crafting system and new loot on aos launch we would be looking at a new game... i have been back less then a year and from scratch.. with items in my bank box to start me out.. which were all trash haha.

of course i had to move to a larger shard on my return to see anyone...players have been great... and helpful..

i had no problem starting over again.

people that want a legacy shard are well mis guided again imo.. i have beat that horse in past posts.. but i was wrong. it would be dead in no time.

the game if stuck at that stage would be even more dead imo.

you complain about no new content haha.. yeah just imagine 1999 .. no updates and nothing new since

. its a standard progression to what it is now...

of course crafting and loot how it is now should have been way sooner... course. took way to long to get that on par... but lack of support will do that to a game...

...........

second conversation... siege should have no item bless. it was only implemented cuz not everyone had an original personal bless deed. and people complained.

siege imo should be our legacy shard. with no item based at all. but thats another rant.

hope all of you have a great day..

the above is just my view in this all over the place thread... agree or not. thanks for playing uo and helping keep it going.

 

[RockoNV]

The game is going along just fine. The player base has not changed. There are those that help, those that don't and those that scam. Same as it ever was............

 

[Tina Small]

My guild on Atlantic has recruited 9 RTB people so far, of those, 1 is living the dream re-living their childhood UO memories, and the other 8 were having a hard time adjusting to the "ok so I need armor....I'll go buy armor.....WHAT!?!?! armor costs THAT much now!?!?!" situation.

Once they discovered shame loot and other free gear with decent properties, they calmed down a bit, and began to thoroughly enjoy themselves exploring the world.

One narrowly avoided getting scammed, he had a 100m server birth item in his bank box, tried to sell it to get other stuff, and some guy lied to him, saying that that the Blackthorn garb epaulettes were "super rare" and worth much more than the server birth. People in general chat and guild chat saved him.

Of the 9 people, 7 have already said they plan to stay a few months, the other 2 are undecided.

3 Play enhanced client and 6 play classic client.

The general consensus was that they would be more inclined to stay longer if they saw an active community, and there were enough people to hunt with, hang out with, and randomly make new friends along the way.

Yeah, I'm trying to not overwhelm my old guildmate with too much information at once. I find myself sending him little messages in ICQ every so often telling him about small but maybe significant changes. E.g., he mentioned that vendor search was grayed out for him. I hadn't even gotten to mention it to him yet, so he clearly found it on the context menu himself and tried it. However, he didn't know you had to be in a house where friended or in a guard zone to use it. Once he got that working, then he had fun trying to find some armor. Luckily, being on GL he did find a few usable pieces and I was able to tweak some of them even further with imbuing. I also mentioned to him about being able to turn in resources to the community collections in deed form or a whole bag at a time, as I think he is interested in a few items from the museum or library.

There's a lot for folks to catch up on. I hope that for most of them, they see that as a fun challenge and don't come back to UO and immediately feel pressured to have the "best of everything," but rather take things slowly and enjoy the process of truly coming back to UO and settling in again.

 

[Tina Small]

I wonder if Mesanna is running any reports to see how many accounts were reactivated with RtB and how much time those reactivated accounts have been logged in this month. I wonder if she would consider doing a simple followup mailing to just those accounts and ask for feedback via email to Broadsword (maybe to an email address specifically created for that purpose?) on what people thought about UO after giving it another try this month. It seems like it could be a golden opportunity for her to get some incredibly valuable feedback that she'd never get via a forum or via Facebook.

 

[Stickypaws]

The game is going along just fine.

Yep! The population is absolutely heaving and not losing residents over time at all.

The player base has not changed.

Cool. Where are all the role players? The people that used to hang at taverns and chat. Where are all the people that used to 'live' in Fel? Not the PvPers. but the general residents of Fel? How about he crafters that used to hang in populated places? Last time I played I was the .only crafter at Luna Bank, and I was only a tinker. The population on some shards has not just changed, but flat out lost entire sub groups of it.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

The population of UO indeed has changed but mostly for the better.

I started playing this game in the year or so before Trammel – the box I bought was The Second Age. I've done a lot in this game.

When I started, UO's population was of necessity a suspicious lot (those who weren't malicious that is). “Help me get my stuff back” almost always was a scam, PKs named for lizardmen (the difference sometimes immediately was not obvious, thus granting the enterprising PK an element of surprise) abounded, and you dare not trust a helpful blacksmith you hadn't already met somehow.

Many, perhaps even most, interactions were about haves lording it over have nots in some way. (Earlier, it was “look at my deadly poisoned katana of vanquishing and bone armor set – you don't have these things and you won't.” Later, it was “look at my full set of artifacts – you don't have these things and you won't.” But it was the same dynamic either way.) Or about taking from someone. (Pking for a glacial staff; dry looting a house because you stole the key and had friends to ensure someone defending his house was dead as soon as he turned gray; joining Trammel guilds with the intent of guild killing and theft.)

The fact that a lot of these interactions were involuntary didn't make them better for anyone save the malicious folks who initiated them. And even then, the joy of getting it over on someone was short-lived compared to the way it guaranteed a limited shelf life to the environment they took place in, and very nearly guaranteed a limited shelf life for the game itself.

Some of us stuck with the game through all this. At first there wasn't much competition for the experience of being in a fantasy milieu without being the big hero. Later on, as other games cams out, many left, but some stayed. The power of the Ultima mythology was undeniable even as many players ignored it and laughed openly at those of us who didn't ignore it. Many of us had made friends. Many of us just liked the environment.

As the game began slowly to change to suit its potential, those of us who weren't lured away by games which perhaps had similar potential but lacked our game's dark past, and the dark legacy of that past, I think overall have not regretted their choice.

These days the interactions with other players in the game are better, because they are more voluntary. Some will continue to take advantage of the ability to have multiple characters an account and mostly stick to themselves and just exist with the broader world moving around them. But, really, what is wrong with that? Not so different from the days when many, in an effort to be self-sufficient, worked magery for recall spells into non-mage templates and worked a small amount of blacksmithing into their templates in order to be able to do basic repairs.

For me and I think for most players who play the game but never read Stratcs, the point of UO never has been to force interactions on the unwilling. Rather it's been that the interactions and the potential for interactions make the world more alive and enrich it. The forced, negative interactions of the past never could hope to unlock that potential.

Competition still exists, but the greater availability of better equipment has made it about how the gear available is used than it is about having something the other guy doesn't and likely won't. It no longer is as exploitative as it once was. It's no longer “I have something you don't and can't.” Rather it's “I thought and/or successfully executed a way of using what's available to both of us; you just didn't think of my method, and/or can't execute as well I do.” And of course for the most part the competitions aren't forced. They can be withdrawn from.

When someone offers to help these days, they most likely genuinely are offering to help, not to lure you someplace. Sure there's some who exploit that (I've seen a good bit of obviously fake noobs or fake returners; scams and exploits of various sorts do still exist). And sure malicious folks are still about. But, they no longer characterize or define interactions as they once did. What once was the rule now has become the exception that proves the new rule.

It's been a rough ride the last couple of years but I think we're finally recovering the potential of UO and its unique environment. In the early days that potential was established but then put under lock and key. Trammel unlocked the potential but it remained far away. Slowly we're getting there.

-Galen's player

 

[Smoot]

Yep! The population is absolutely heaving and not losing residents over time at all.



Cool. Where are all the role players? The people that used to hang at taverns and chat. Where are all the people that used to 'live' in Fel? Not the PvPers. but the general residents of Fel? How about he crafters that used to hang in populated places? Last time I played I was the .only crafter at Luna Bank, and I was only a tinker. The population on some shards has not just changed, but flat out lost entire sub groups of it.

the only shard with significant rp presence is catskills. several good rp guilds and relatively active. other than that all rp groups that i know of have died out. atlantic used to have a huge rp following but its dead as far as i can tell.

oh chessy has some rp too but they are wierd and annoying

 

[Eärendil]

When I was there in the early years, everything was crowded. There were alot of as***les around trying to grief you. I stepped into deathgates and became robbed and killed more than once. The spirit of the game was greedy, mean and evil. Thieves and assassins at every corner. I left and decided not to come back.

When I returned, most of the as****es were gone, there was plenty of space for everybody. You could go hunting without being griefed. Nobody could steal your stuff or your house key. You could simply live your hobbitlife, doing some gardening, fishing, occasional hunting with friends - and avoid the crowd and thr thives and the pvp-people.

I camr back and decided to stay. UO is much lovelier now. I am happy. Everything is fine!

 

[RockoNV]

Yep! The population is absolutely heaving and not losing residents over time at all.



Cool. Where are all the role players? The people that used to hang at taverns and chat. Where are all the people that used to 'live' in Fel? Not the PvPers. but the general residents of Fel? How about he crafters that used to hang in populated places? Last time I played I was the .only crafter at Luna Bank, and I was only a tinker. The population on some shards has not just changed, but flat out lost entire sub groups of it.

Go out and find it.

 

[MalagAste]

the only shard with significant rp presence is catskills. several good rp guilds and relatively active. other than that all rp groups that i know of have died out. atlantic used to have a huge rp following but its dead as far as i can tell.

oh chessy has some rp too but they are wierd and annoying

There is RP on GL's... though lesser of late it grows and dies back and such... however I heard there was some on Baja at one time... not really been a witness to that. I prefer not to make opinions of the RP on other shards. I know GL's used to have constant RP with Tavern nights and all but when it's only the same 4 to 10 people who show up and only a few regularly it also wanes. More often than not getting folk "outside" the RP community to come to things that we do seems to be hit and miss... If we do it in a very heavy RP manner no one shows but us... if we don't do an event that gives out 100's of millions in prizes most folk won't give us the time of day. We try to provide fun events for everyone but then oft times end up getting griefed more than getting folk to participate genuinely... Sadly there are few if any incentives to get folk interested in RP or community projects if they don't think they are "getting stuff" out of it... Lately it seems if you can't make 100 mill or more doing something it's not worthwhile to most folk.

I miss more than anything the large RP battles .... small skirmishes... running into a band of well played orcs or Urks who want shinnies and to eat you or your horse. I miss the interactions between this good guild and that one trying to see who is the best swordsman or best archer... being challenged to a duel civilly without the barrage of OOC name calling and foulness that you get in Fel. Without worry of folk cheating and hacking and looting... just out and out fun with a purpose... where it had meaning and wasn't just because I saw you walking by thought I'd kill you or lure you to somewhere and have my friends gank you 10 to 1.... to me that sort of thing was NEVER fun. Well balanced battles were the best. When you didn't know going in which side might win. Where somedays you won the day... and sometimes you lost. Then you could kick back at the Tavern and tell your guildmates about the encounter over a bottle of Yew Wine.

Those days seem long gone. Don't think any shard has the numbers anymore to field 4 or 5 groups of 20 or more rpers coming together to defeat a foe or meeting head to head to see who could hold the line... Driving the orcs out of Skara Brae... making it safe for crafters to come and go without being asked to gib shinnies... doubt very much we'll ever see those days again.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Cool. Where are all the role players?

*raises hand*

-Galen's player

 

[Zuckuss]

Cool. Where are all the role players? The people that used to hang at taverns and chat. Where are all the people that used to 'live' in Fel? Not the PvPers. but the general residents of Fel? How about he crafters that used to hang in populated places? Last time I played I was the .only crafter at Luna Bank, and I was only a tinker. The population on some shards has not just changed, but flat out lost entire sub groups of it.

They went to Cats. Go check it out.

There is currently six rotating tavern nights here: http://community.stratics.com/threads/tavern-night-rotation-schedule.323092/

There are player events posted by the month here: http://community.stratics.com/threads/october-2014-events.321838/#post-2448679

Spontaneous activity in several in game and player ran towns. RP'ers who have been around since day one as well as new players trying it out... and growing. Active governors, RBG units, Anti-RBG units. Come build something yourself.

 

[MalagAste]

They went to Cats. Go check it out.

There is currently six rotating tavern nights here: http://community.stratics.com/threads/tavern-night-rotation-schedule.323092/

There are player events posted by the month here: http://community.stratics.com/threads/october-2014-events.321838/#post-2448679

Spontaneous activity in several in game and player ran towns. RP'ers who have been around since day one as well as new players trying it out... and growing. Active governors, RBG units, Anti-RBG units. Come build something yourself.

Problem with this idea of folk leaving shards to go somewhere else is this:

Many RPers or people who have played 10+ years or more have more than one account. Packing up and moving to another shard to relocate and RP is not only "risky business" but EXTREMELY expensive.... and don't tell me about selling all your stuff on the home shard and transfering... first off with many folk you gather things that are ..... "unique"...... or "sentimental".... RPers often have sentimental attachments to things... they mean quite a bit. Packing up and moving and starting over just isn't an option for many.

Yes it would be nice to have a "large" RP community and a larger RPing player base to join and be with but truth is and I hate to say this many feel that the shard they are on is "home".... I don't want to pack and move to another shard to "start over"... I know the history of my home. I've been a part of that history since the day I first set foot in Sosaria... I've grown with it become attached to it. Moving to another shard means giving up. We'd give up our past... give up our home.... give up our lives. Don't care to start over on a shard I don't know anything about ... no history there... I don't have a mark there on anything. Re-establishing a "home" on another shard is like taking someone out of the jungles of a city and dropping them into the Amazon and expecting them to survive. Most will die.

I've witnessed many an exodus from our shard... from what I've "heard" or seen it often leads to the downfall of a group or community. Many guilds I've know that have "left" our home fell to ruin... most no longer exist or became fragments of what they were... a great number left Sosaria unable to ever "recapture" what they sought on other shards. They just never felt at "home" ... found that they just couldn't blend in or make a go on a new shard.

I tried leaving my home once or twice.. spent a few weeks on this or that shard... but it always came down to missing the community. Like most I know probably 80% of the shard I'm on. I know who to trust... who not to trust. I know where to shop... where not to shop. I know who can give me a good deal and who is just wanting to rip you off. Don't really know diddly when you go to another shard. Not really wanting to spend another 15 years learning it. Sure I make trades with folk on other shards. Sure I've RPed here or there on another shard... but when you get right down to it... just isn't like "home".

And for myself with 9 accounts... No not even remotely possible to dream of going to another shard. The expense would FAR outweigh the benefits... and the loss of leaving my home that I've worked on and made a name for myself on would be like quitting. Something I couldn't do either no matter how many times I've considered leaving UO. Never been able to stay away for more than a few brief weeks. Never closed an account down...

It's a nice thought and yes many would love and welcome new faces and more folk... but truth of the matter is... wouldn't ever be the same. That magic of being recognized for who you are and what you've done. The trust you establish with folk over 15 years... all would be gone on a new shard. Sure you might bring a hand full with you .... but you leave more than you bring. And often times that leaves a hole that can't be filled. Eventually the flame dies out. Like taking the air from a candle... the life of the fire that was dies. Sometimes you can relight it.... but without the air that light will never burn again. If you keep splitting up a group eventually you end up with nothing left.

The only thing that might or could bring more community would be if they wiped all the shards and created shards that were based on types and styles of play... but even that might not work.. some like wonderous variety... which is what makes UO great... we don't have cookie cutters... we are all unique like a fingerprint. Each shard has grown with it's own life.... it's own fire... it's own past... sure we may share some of it... but in the RP world... that's a pretty thin slice. Perhaps if they created some sort of clover type effect where you might link 4 shards together to create one new large world through a special portal shard... where you could freely travel from one to another... perhaps that might be an ok idea... but honestly most folk don't want to leave their home.... no matter how the population has dwindled... or changed... it's still "home".

Sure some make the break and jump to another shard and create a whole new life there... but often the past follows them, sometimes haunts them... sometimes it calls them back home. But all in all and all too often... it tends to snuff the fire they had for UO often with such force that it just can't be re-lit.

 

[Stickypaws]

Go out and find it.

Cheap and fail reply It apparently is not there on my shard any more.

Malagaste absolutely nailed why I cant transfer shard. Tried it twice in the past, and it does just snuff my desire of UO out.

 

[Advisor Bacchus]

Just out of curiosity.
Why did you leave the game six years ago?

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

Just out of curiosity.
Why did you leave the game six years ago?

I play a thief and all except the first 3 months of playing UO, played a thief. I grew tired of all of the nerfs of the thief profession, so I went off to try and find another game to play.

In those last six years, the only game that actually allowed a player to steal from another player was UO...but to avoid the nerfing that took place, I tried almost every free shard out there. Some made changes that helped the thief profession, others merely used the old rulesets that I loved (prior to insurance).

Over time, I stopped playing those for various reasons, and tried other games where I could play a rogue type character. None of them quenched my thirst for the chase that being a thief in UO provided.

I still don't know that I will come back after the RtB is over, but I thought I would give it a try again to see what's changed. Outside of all the game based development changes, the biggest thing I have noticed so far is the change of the population...and thus the reason I created this thread in the first place...la

 

[Miss Smoocher]

I really think the game has gone down hill with world chat. Be for you went to Brit bank to meet up with people with world chat no one dose that anymore and now with all the trash talk with pvpers in fel people just turn off chat and play alone.

 

[FrejaSP]

I really think the game has gone down hill with world chat. Be for you went to Brit bank to meet up with people with world chat no one dose that anymore and now with all the trash talk with pvpers in fel people just turn off chat and play alone.

In old days, we had a public IRC Siege chat, not much diff from the Gen Chat.

 

[Captn Norrington]

the only shard with significant rp presence is catskills. several good rp guilds and relatively active. other than that all rp groups that i know of have died out. atlantic used to have a huge rp following but its dead as far as i can tell.

Most of the Atlantic RP people went to Catskills a few months ago, and the rest of them like Toad Town went to Lake Austin. From what they said before they left, I get the impression they left because they were tired of everything they did getting griefed endlessly.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

I would suggest to any of the RP communities to check Siege out. The server population is probably as low as any other server, and has it's own unique ruleset that imho works better for r/p than the production servers.

The only issue would be that you couldn't transfer to Siege...everyone would have to start from scratch and would only have one character per account...la

 

[Captn Norrington]

I would suggest to any of the RP communities to check Siege out. The server population is probably as low as any other server, and has it's own unique ruleset that imho works better for r/p than the production servers.

The only issue would be that you couldn't transfer to Siege...everyone would have to start from scratch and would only have one character per account...la

There are a few people who are usually willing to trade normal shard gold for Siege gold. I think the conversion rate lately is 1 mil Siege gold for 7 mil normal gold.

 

[MalagAste]

I would suggest to any of the RP communities to check Siege out. The server population is probably as low as any other server, and has it's own unique ruleset that imho works better for r/p than the production servers.

The only issue would be that you couldn't transfer to Siege...everyone would have to start from scratch and would only have one character per account...la

I've tried Siege... didn't seem to be a whole lot of RP there. Did seem to be nice folk about... but had the usual # of complete jerks as well. Most times I never saw a soul on Siege... sometimes that's good... othertimes not so much. And I get tired of the constant back watching.

 

[Captn Norrington]

I've tried Siege... didn't seem to be a whole lot of RP there. Did seem to be nice folk about... but had the usual # of complete jerks as well. Most times I never saw a soul on Siege... sometimes that's good... othertimes not so much. And I get tired of the constant back watching.

I learned a while ago when I tried playing on Siege, that although it looks completely dead all the time, It's not, they're all just stealthing. If you ask around in general chat there's pretty much always at least 5 people on, they just don't show themselves very often outside of chat.

 

[TheScoundrelRico]

While, I've never been a regular roleplayer, I have known plenty. I'm not sure there are that many that are that interested in gold to be honest, so starting fresh could be a lot of fun if they came over as a group.

The groups I used to visit with seemed more interested in building their community and stories than building the gold in their banks. Siege used to have some pretty active role play guilds and probably one of the strongest orc role playing guilds in UO. Now...I'm not sure there are any true role play guilds on Siege which leave the door open for groups interested in starting it back up.

The other point I mentioned was the shard population. It's very low now and those that are left pretty much live and play in solitude...I'm sure if guilds of players started showing up, there would be a bunch of Siege regulars that would be willing to help them get on their feet an learn about the environment...la

 

[Captn Norrington]

The groups I used to visit with seemed more interested in building their community and stories than building the gold in their banks. Siege used to have some pretty active role play guilds and probably one of the strongest orc role playing guilds in UO. Now...I'm not sure there are any true role play guilds on Siege which leave the door open for groups interested in starting it back up.

Gilfane is still a relatively active community for RP aren't they? Seems like I always stumble across their advertisements for events.