Re: Can we make an all Tram shard?
Sure we could, and would I play there? ............ In a shot. I wouldn't even care about extra lag.
I would love to play on a shard that was not corrupted by a false economy and without the need to deal with a lot (not all) of the pvp mentality players. You only have to note the 'tone' of this style of player when referring to those who prefer the Trammel ruleset and playstyle as 'trammies' 'carebears' and all the other type of language used to denigrate those who do not wish to partake in pvp.
My ideal Trammel shard would include:
* Absolutely NO Transfers, you wish to play it, create a character and play. The ability to transfer shards with multiple items is the total cause of butchered economies and greed, makes the 'cheats' who script farm and 'deliver' their gold/items to whatever shard, easy as, promotes the farming of powerscrolls and other 'rare' items from the smaller to larger shards. Stops the loss of rare items from events, thus devaluing the 'history' of a shard for those who only do it for the xtransfer value. There was absolutely NO NEED to allow shard transfers. You want to 'play' a different shard, create your chars and play.
* No Felucca, but with those aspects of Felucca missing from Trammel put into Trammel, ie the champ spawns into Lost Lands trammel, dungeon Khaldun etc Other than a few game aspects Felucca does not need to 'exist'. One world would be great.
* 2 characters per account. So you have a choice of a crafter/combat, or play two crafters or two combat eg tamer and thief, mage and paladin etc. The fact that everyone couldn't have one of 'everything' would encourage player to player trade of all types of items and bring back a community that depended on 'others' if they wanted 'everything' in game. I don't believe 1 character per account is enough as it basically rules out 50% of game content depending on which template you elect to play and would so limit game play experience on a personal enjoyment level. So while everyone 'could' technically have a crafter, there is still room for a variety of 'crafter' types as not all crafting/gathering skills will fit on one template. ie tailor, smith, carpenter (incl masonry), tinker, miner, lumberjack, inscriber, fletcher, alchemist (inc glassblowing), arms lore (for improved crafting), fishing, cartographer, lockpicking etc. Especially if a 'recall' type skill is needed to get around as most crafters devote at least 40-50 points to for ease of gameplay.
Unfortunately on our existing shards, 'soul stones' have basically made it so every character can have any skill, any time, assuming that they have trained it up once and have the soulstones, however a shard created now would only allow one soulstone per account as a 1st yr vet reward, account bound, which would pretty much eliminate this. The impact of previous soulstone and soul stone fragment issues as exist on the current shards would be non existant.
WHY
Firstly it would take UO back to being a 'community' as it was intended, and get rid of this 'us' and 'them' mentality between pvm and pvp playstyles.
Secondly, we currently have seige (pvp) and the other shards (pvm/pvp mixed) there is no shard that has the seige type transfer rules that is without the pvp content.
It would be fantastic to be able to start on a shard that wasn't full of highly inflated prices due to cheats, pvp playstyle monopolies, xtransfered items creating imbalance and making overinflated 'rare' prices.
I wouldn't care if it was dble resources or not, as whichever would be 'equal' to all players, and those who work hard gathering would be rewarded and it would not depend on 'where' you do it.
It would be great to play on a shard where risk v reward was equal to all players. ie, If I do a peerless with 3 people the 'risk' is greater than doing it with 6 people, but the reward is split 3 ways rather than 6 etc.
If I wanted to play 'factions' and allow some 'player v player' content into my game then I could. But it would be by choice, not a pvp playstyle forced on me by limiting some 'items' to a facet where pvp combat is the only option if you want those items.
This fallacy that having felucca is 'risk v reward' has always made me laugh. The so called 'risk' is so one sided against the pvm'er needing to compete against a seasoned pvp'er that the idea is ludicrous. It has and always will be minimal risk to the pvp player as opposed to much higher risk for those not interested in that playstyle. And I say 'not interested' not 'not capable' as there is a subtle difference. A pvp player is geared up to play that style, generally has all combat spells in macros and specific combinations which are only designed for ONE thing, totally different to the required 'set up' for pvm players with different settings/requirements in their macro/template/item choices etc. It is like putting a person in a rollerskating rink who has spent years skating each and every day with a person who skates once a year and saying the 'risk' of a fall is equal. LMAO.
As for the continuous chants of 'risk v reward' by the pvp set who think that 'if us trammies' want powerscrolls, dble resources etc we should face the 'risk' of being pk'd and robbed from, well my question is 'who said?' If I want all my 'risk' to be against pvm monsters why not? ......... Who 'said' you only have "proper" risk with pvp? NO ONE. It is just an existing game mechanic. The ONLY reason you hear this so often from the pvp 'set' is because they know that the risk to them against those who do not pvp is minimal. So the so called 'risk' is only on one side of the equation and on that basis their ability to control some of the aspects of the game eg powerscrolls, their ability to get 'fame', 'item drop rates' and resources at double the trammel rate is much 'easier' for them when they don't have to 'compete' with the majority, as the majority prefer NOT to bother with the pvp playstyle. The fact that they have their 'compliment' of 'blues' so that they can then 'sell' these easier obtained rewards in the Trammel ruleset is the thing that causes the imbalance. IMO if you have one 'red' char on your account, NONE of your chars should be able to enter Trammel. See all the cries you would get then. Where is the 'risk' when you all play 'blues' as well as 'reds' pfft. The real 'risk' would then be ok, play a 'red' and get those 'extra' benefits for being in fel, but lose the ability to play in Trammel.
You don't hear of many (any?) trammel pvm'ers speedhacking and using third party programs to chug pots, cut all trees to stumps, using item and blessed item 'bugs', using insta targetting and casting while running 'cheats'. 90% of the complaints on this board are due to these so called 'elite' pvp players and guilds and the use of these cheats. Sheesh, you even have the 'honest' pvp players complaining about what 'seems' to be the majority of pvp use of these illegal programs. How many times do we read 'if you can't beat them join them' put up by these players. In all my time reading these boards I don't think I have ever once seen someone complaining about a pvm'er using third party programs to speedhack against a demon or dragon, nor to use them to chug pots, heal with aids etc etc
Lastly, I would be able to play on a shard where the dev's didn't reward this type of player by continually trying to 'force' me into a pvp playstyle just to give them additional thrills in a one sided battle. I am so sick of the dev's putting content and items at greater 'drop rates' or 'fel only' into an area that means if you want to 'compete' you have to go there or 'miss out' or 'get less' for your time and energy.
I bet it would be really interesting to see how well a trammel only shard would be received. I for one would love it and to have the chance to play UO on a shard free of xtransfers and all the above unbalanced corrupted systems would be heaven.
