A plea to fellow players- calling to arms those who love UO!

[Mr. Plod]

As you all know, recent events have pushed many players to quit, which is a serious threat to our world!

Posts on this thread should should be positive, encouraging words for our wounded Ultima family.

Also, I'd like to address an issue that has long been ignored. How can we bring new players to our game? I understand there is an argument that younger players like fast gameplay and realistic graphics, but this is a stereotype that I do not fall under (age 20, started sept 2011) Don't tell me I am the only one. I commend our community in its intelligence, and would love to see any ideas regarding this issue posted on this thread!

Thanks- Mr. Plod

 

[Theo_GL]

As you all know, recent events have pushed many players to quit, which is a serious threat to our world!

Posts on this thread should should be positive, encouraging words for our wounded Ultima family.

Also, I'd like to address an issue that has long been ignored. How can we bring new players to our game? I understand there is an argument that younger players like fast gameplay and realistic graphics, but this is a stereotype that I do not fall under (age 20, started sept 2011) Don't tell me I am the only one. I commend our community in its intelligence, and would love to see any ideas regarding this issue posted on this thread!

Thanks- Mr. Plod

Bring new players? How about even keeping the ones they have.

Now that they have 'fixed' the RTB houses I'm stuck with 2 houses on my main shard and if I am stuck playing only GL I'm going to poke myself in the eye. I am seriously considering selling/trashing my junk and shutting off the accounts. I had houses and seriously played 3-4 shards but now I'm only on GL which is UO's trailer park.

Combine this with the fact that they are once again jacking with armor/weapons and if history is any indicator - it will be done by people who are new and don't understand the systems and they will further add more complexity. Not looking forward to this change and reoutfitting all my fighting characters. I just got through rebuilding the sampires with armor/suits and don't want to do it again.

They want to attract ppl to the game? Make it simplier. This game is so freaking complex it takes years to figgure out all the systems to be 'good' at it. Try explaining, bods, crafting, imbuing, reforging to a new player. Its hours of time just to teach them how to craft a suit of armor so they can go out and kill lizardmen to make money. The game is so complex - its a job. All the additions to have been mainly adding more systems that feel like jobs and not a whole hell of alot of adventuring. I haven't even done the new 'boss' because I went to collect the tickets and after an hour of killing things with my sampire and having one ticket - I gave up. UO should not be a job. It should not. Anything in game should be able to be done in 1 hour or less. Events, champ spawns, peerless, new bosses etc. That should be the goal. Make it so that a normal person with a job and a family that has 1-2 hours to play can actually play the game.

 

[SixUnder]

i commend your enthusiasm, and agree with your post. However, EA let this happen and favor the player base of the trammie. Just how it is, old school players, and anyone post AOS liked the game for what it was, not what it has become. To get them back??
expansion revert. And i say that seriously, im a 15 year vet and come from 2 guilds in all those years. For over a decade the people who played thisgame played because of what could be done in felluca, content needs added to that, only realistic shot you got. Candy Land improvements only go so far.

 

[SixUnder]

Bring new players? How about even keeping the ones they have.

Now that they have 'fixed' the RTB houses I'm stuck with 2 houses on my main shard and if I am stuck playing only GL I'm going to poke myself in the eye. I am seriously considering selling/trashing my junk and shutting off the accounts. I had houses and seriously played 3-4 shards but now I'm only on GL which is UO's trailer park.

Combine this with the fact that they are once again jacking with armor/weapons and if history is any indicator - it will be done by people who are new and don't understand the systems and they will further add more complexity. Not looking forward to this change and reoutfitting all my fighting characters. I just got through rebuilding the sampires with armor/suits and don't want to do it again.

They want to attract ppl to the game? Make it simplier. This game is so freaking complex it takes years to figgure out all the systems to be 'good' at it. Try explaining, bods, crafting, imbuing, reforging to a new player. Its hours of time just to teach them how to craft a suit of armor so they can go out and kill lizardmen to make money. The game is so complex - its a job. All the additions to have been mainly adding more systems that feel like jobs and not a whole hell of alot of adventuring. I haven't even done the new 'boss' because I went to collect the tickets and after an hour of killing things with my sampire and having one ticket - I gave up. UO should not be a job. It should not. Anything in game should be able to be done in 1 hour or less. Events, champ spawns, peerless, new bosses etc. That should be the goal. Make it so that a normal person with a job and a family that has 1-2 hours to play can actually play the game.

SO much smack talk about GL, we have been having 30-40 player combats in felluca. Thats not great but its not bad either.

 

[Mr. Plod]

Dude, I asked for positive input..

Having said that, I do agree with you. The developers should focus less on making changes and adding to our existing system and more time fixing what is broken.
I understand that servers are being moved to the cloud, causing alot of issues with both player migration and gameplay. This should be over soon.

I really like the revamped dungeons spending hours tearing through monsters and loot opens an aspect of the game that anyone and everyone can enjoy!
If I have 15-20 mins to play, you'll find me in one of the dungeons farming away.
I recently met a returning vet, from before the invasion. He was in dungeon Shame and I don't think he's been out, since! Hehe

Regarding new players- everyone started somewhere. It's up to us to help them understand what Ultima has to offer. I am looking to spread the word of the existence of Ultima Online, bringing people willing to learn

Thanks for voicing your opinion, Theo_GL. Lets hear what others have to say! Positive, encouraging words on this thread please!

 

[Flagg]

Two things I would love to see

Free to Play
Strictly from point of view of already existing and paying custimers, F2P retaps you to most important and valuable resource any MMO can have. One that is growing rather thin in today's UO: (new) players.
It'd be nice to have some resemblance of actual crowds and that adorable early 00's controlled chaos going. Life.

For several years now, a cash shop has been attached to UO. It has already ended up reminding quite a bit of ones the most succesful F2P games are currently running. Unlike most F2P MMOs, UO has incredibly deep, varied and fun itemization to support such shop. Thanks to Housing, UO has very fun, entertaining feature that could easily be converted into hook&bait type of a thing for those who are playing for free. (Want a house? Sure!Pay up! Or better yet, subscrbe!!)

Surely F2P mechanisms could never co-exist with gaping holes in code and on admin side that make duping, macroing, scripts and suches both easy and safe to use. So of course those would have to get patched up before something as easy to exploit as F2P accounts comes even a possibility. Of course, it is also highly likely Classic Client's coding is such that actually being able to insert various restrictions and functions F2P side would need is impossible. UO's existing cash shop (well,it has all gotten buried in depths of Origin now actually..) not being in any way reachable through game kinda suggests this might be the case. All in all, turning Sub based game and it's mechanisms to an F2P is a significant leap. In most cases where it has succeeded, it has been preluded with work and hype that pretty much equal to a re-release of the said game. Such stunts require investment, attention and care in quantities that doesn't even share the ballbark with complete lack of any of those that EA is currently giving and displaying:l

All this is slightly frustrating; UO has a pretty healthy Free to Play crowd as it is. It's just that they don't play on OSI shards. It'd be nice if it were possible to drag some of them in. I've been little saddened to notice how some of those servers are actually almost as lively as OSI now. More and more often, when I google stuff like uhh " Ultima Online how do I modify bows" or whatever, at least one out of top 3 search results takes to an unofficial shard or another.



Proper account managment
I'd like to think this stands little less firmly in dream world than the F2P.

Scenario: Last you played UO was in, say 2003. You got bored but also got fond memories. Thusly, you joined many who decide to give it a new try via a free trial. You notice you still enjoy the game and community surprisingly much!! You decide to strart playing again. Time to activate your real account!

Ok. Here are thethings you need to figure out:
- You have to create an EA Master account. This one is also your Origin account on some supernatural meta level, but nobody actually explains this to you properly on any of the screens you see wyhen navigating about in uo.com. If your email already has Origin account, I'm assuming this goes both ways. So you might actually already have an EA Master Account and create a new one by mistake.
- Mythic master account. Some mysterious thing that happened at one point or another. You need to link this to your EA account and before that you need to link your UO accounts to the Mythic account. Assuming you get through persistent suggestions by Mythic's site that you really might wanna try Warhammer or DAOC instead, you finally end up in your account screen. UO accounts you hopefully just linked to either EA or Mythic accounts or both now appear in confusing tiny drop down menu that is easy to miss. You pick any of your UO accounts from this menu, and THEEN you eventually get a chnage to find a screen where you can actually activate your account.
- Since this example guy hasn't been playing UO in 10 years, he has absolutely no clue what his last UO password might have been. Since his UO account is not linked to Mythic or EA or Origin or whatever, he has no automated way to retrieve or reset the long forgotten UO password(s) anymore. Instead, it used to be possible to retrieve them by emailing UO support staff. The process would take 3-5 days. From what I've understood this is no longer something you can do(??) Nowadays, you (apparently?) have to contact EA's own general all products covering customer support. Which translates into " may God help you if you have forgotten a password to unlinked account"

In brief, returning veteran who didn't play the game when the Mythic merging and/or EA Master Account business took took place must overcome an insane grind of blood, **** and agony in order to reach a screen where he can give EA money to play UO. It would be nice if this could be fixed.
More or less all other MMOs operate along the lines of "Forgotten your password/account name? Give us your email and you are good to go!"

It's like actually getting through to a situation where EA/Mythic allows you the honor to be able to give them money for UO is this rite of passage ment only for the strongest and most determined. Surely we don't want just any random impulse buyer who just decides to give the game a spin on one sunday afternoon. No, his heart and soul must be put through Mythic grind to see if he is determined and strong enough to deserve UO.

 

[MalagAste]

What many don't understand about UO is that it doesn't have a guide....

There is NO set path for anything... many players of games anymore want to follow a course... they choose X character and X Character starts here does this quest thru that one and on to that one... wears this armor for this skill set and gets that from Xy and Z quests..... blah, blah, blah.....

Well in UO you can do anything you want..... you don't have to follow any path there are no set quests you "need" to do.... there is no armor you have to get for any particular skill set because we are not based on that sort of play.... you can create a newb character on any shard and interact and have fun for hours on end without gaining or working a single skill....

There is no going here and there for this and that if you don't want to.

That said there are some paths we all choose to follow...... If you like PvE then maybe you build a character that has bushido and chivy and is an archer or thrower or whatever.... but you need a good 70's suit with good MR and all to do specials.....

If you are strict PvM then maybe you build a Tamer.... but then you could have a SW/Mage/Tamer...... or a Bard Tamer..... or whatever...... and hell maybe your tamer is a T-Hunter.... Whatever trips your trigger.....
Maybe your just into RP ...... Well then you can walk out there right now and do it...... Only skill required is the one you bring with you to the game your imagination and ability to play a role.

Maybe you like Mundane things like Crafting.... So you decide what you want get yourself some soulstones cause you will need them or work up 7 different types of crafters..... gather bods if that trips your trigger and there you are...

That is both the beauty and downfall of UO. We don't have any directions.... We are limited only by our imaginations and our own goals and skills at gameplay.... Our own perceptions shape our needs and our own pet peeves limit our fun.... We make our own decisions on what is or is not acceptable to our game play and we decide to play based on those decisions.

Often it is our own morals and such that play a large role in our perception of what makes the game "fun" or what makes us "happy" with the game.

Trying to TEACH anyone new about the game is very difficult if you don't know what desires the person has. Just like you go to any shard and discover the RP community and you will find VAST differences in the communities based on what they perceive as what is or is not good RP and what is or isn't acceptable.... some make all sorts of rules and such some have quite ridged structure..... some don't... Some make you prove yourself worthy others do not..... Some are rich in history..... just depends on the community what you may or may not find.


To get new players we would need a good new player guide..... and a good in-game questing system like we used to have... that helped you thru many things and is available for BOTH clients. The EC sort of has one but it doesn't teach you anything about simple things like the fact that you have a bankbox...... Some kind of starting guide on the website might be a HUGE help.

Would also help if we didn't have scammers and such just waiting to pounce on the newbies and totally ruin their gaming experience..... Would also help if the Gen Chat wasn't always full of vulgar profanity....... not a real turn on for newer players.... Unless maybe they have the mentality of a pre-teen psychopath.....

Sadly more often than not Vets are responsible for turning away as many potential new players as they bring in...

The Account Management system probably turns off another massive amount of potential new players. Heck even vets can't seem to navigate the thing....

So many things still need fixed too before old players or new players will take UO seriously.

And that much needed High Resolution update needs to seriously be getting going or we'll be turning off even more people.

Just saying.

 

[Mr. Plod]

What many don't understand about UO is that it doesn't have a guide....

There is NO set path for anything... many players of games anymore want to follow a course... they choose X character and X Character starts here does this quest thru that one and on to that one... wears this armor for this skill set and gets that from Xy and Z quests..... blah, blah, blah.....

Well in UO you can do anything you want..... you don't have to follow any path there are no set quests you "need" to do.... there is no armor you have to get for any particular skill set because we are not based on that sort of play.... you can create a newb character on any shard and interact and have fun for hours on end without gaining or working a single skill....

There is no going here and there for this and that if you don't want to.

That said there are some paths we all choose to follow...... If you like PvE then maybe you build a character that has bushido and chivy and is an archer or thrower or whatever.... but you need a good 70's suit with good MR and all to do specials.....

If you are strict PvM then maybe you build a Tamer.... but then you could have a SW/Mage/Tamer...... or a Bard Tamer..... or whatever...... and hell maybe your tamer is a T-Hunter.... Whatever trips your trigger.....
Maybe your just into RP ...... Well then you can walk out there right now and do it...... Only skill required is the one you bring with you to the game your imagination and ability to play a role.

Maybe you like Mundane things like Crafting.... So you decide what you want get yourself some soulstones cause you will need them or work up 7 different types of crafters..... gather bods if that trips your trigger and there you are...

That is both the beauty and downfall of UO. We don't have any directions.... We are limited only by our imaginations and our own goals and skills at gameplay.... Our own perceptions shape our needs and our own pet peeves limit our fun.... We make our own decisions on what is or is not acceptable to our game play and we decide to play based on those decisions.

Often it is our own morals and such that play a large role in our perception of what makes the game "fun" or what makes us "happy" with the game.

Trying to TEACH anyone new about the game is very difficult if you don't know what desires the person has. Just like you go to any shard and discover the RP community and you will find VAST differences in the communities based on what they perceive as what is or is not good RP and what is or isn't acceptable.... some make all sorts of rules and such some have quite ridged structure..... some don't... Some make you prove yourself worthy others do not..... Some are rich in history..... just depends on the community what you may or may not find.


To get new players we would need a good new player guide..... and a good in-game questing system like we used to have... that helped you thru many things and is available for BOTH clients. The EC sort of has one but it doesn't teach you anything about simple things like the fact that you have a bankbox...... Some kind of starting guide on the website might be a HUGE help.

Would also help if we didn't have scammers and such just waiting to pounce on the newbies and totally ruin their gaming experience..... Would also help if the Gen Chat wasn't always full of vulgar profanity....... not a real turn on for newer players.... Unless maybe they have the mentality of a pre-teen psychopath.....

Sadly more often than not Vets are responsible for turning away as many potential new players as they bring in...

The Account Management system probably turns off another massive amount of potential new players. Heck even vets can't seem to navigate the thing....

So many things still need fixed too before old players or new players will take UO seriously.

And that much needed High Resolution update needs to seriously be getting going or we'll be turning off even more people.

Just saying.

Yes the malice exhibited by some players (full grown adults!) is astonishing

 

[MalagAste]

Yes the malice exhibited by some players (full grown adults!) is astonishing

It's not only astonishing it's down right disturbing and is a massive turn off.

 

[Mr. Plod]

So a free to play world, not just a trial account, would give new players a chance to experience the community ultima has to offer. Great ideas! This is a really big one it would take months to create, if it is possible at all.

I would like to see more posts on this topic! Maybe there are more realistic things that the player community can do to promote our game? Keep brainstorming, and please keep this thread clean and positive! Thnx

 

[Swordsman]

One of the issue right now is that the boss type creatures, required 3 or more players, and it takes 2 hours or more to complete, from key gathering to kill the boss. It is increasingly hard to gather the people and keep playing for a long time.

I recommend to add more content for 1 or 2 player quest, remove the key timers, give more power to players so that they can play exciting game alone, and there is no time pressure.

 

[KLOMP]

i commend your enthusiasm, and agree with your post. However, EA let this happen and favor the player base of the trammie. Just how it is, old school players, and anyone post AOS liked the game for what it was, not what it has become. To get them back??
expansion revert. And i say that seriously, im a 15 year vet and come from 2 guilds in all those years. For over a decade the people who played thisgame played because of what could be done in felluca, content needs added to that, only realistic shot you got. Candy Land improvements only go so far.

Look man, this game is 15 years old and Trammel has been around for 12 of them. Get over it already. I mean what sort of dreamworld do you live in where they get rid of Trammel and the game doesn't shut down in disgrace a couple months later?

Felucca was a ghost town pretty much as soon as Trammel opened, long before AOS. Where WERE all those people who supposedly loved it?

 

[Lord Frodo]

i commend your enthusiasm, and agree with your post. However, EA let this happen and favor the player base of the trammie. Just how it is, old school players, and anyone post AOS liked the game for what it was, not what it has become. To get them back??
expansion revert. And i say that seriously, im a 15 year vet and come from 2 guilds in all those years. For over a decade the people who played thisgame played because of what could be done in felluca, content needs added to that, only realistic shot you got. Candy Land improvements only go so far.

If it wasnt for Tram UO would have died many years ago.
AOS IMHO killed the UO we knew.

For over a decade the people who played this game played because of what could be done in felluca, content needs added to that, only realistic shot you got.

I have been here just as long as you and IMHO you are %100 wrong.

 

[Phineas]

F2P brings other problems I would hate to see in UO. For one, there is no real world attachment (read: money) to the account. This brings out all kinds of hidious behavior. I have played several games that once they went F2P the language, racial slurs, scripting, scamming and all manner of negative actions exploded. Second, once a game goes F2P it also goes in to some form of maintenace mode. GMs go the way of the do-do bird and dev interaction with the community all but stops. Third, more often than not a F2P game last only a short time before it just can't continue to operate. This happens for a few reasons, that I can see, with no or little money coming in the company which owns it has no interest in keeping it running. Also, my first point tends to drive large chunks of the vet population away. They just have no use for all the negative things occuring in the game and find greener pastures.

I would love to see an advertisment in some of the computer/tech/gaming magazines. Maybe even get an article written about UO. This I think would bring a lot of new players looking for something new to try. It could also serve as a memory jog for those who used to play and maybe forgot or just have simply not thought about UO in some time. I know advertising costs but, I would think even a one or two month ad campaign would be paid by new/returning account subs.

In another post someone mentioned players who were elected by the players to advocate for their area of expertice. In DAoC they had something similar and I think it worked well. Players who had vast amounts of knowledge about a certain class or other aspect of the game had a direct avenue of communication to the Devs. These players would take bugs/requests from other players and pass along the best of it to the Devs monthly. The Devs would then work on implementing the best of those ideas and the rest would get some short explaination why it would not work. Nothing too indepth just a quick, short blurb in laymans terms. The only thing these players received for their time was a title ingame that denoted their area of focus; 'Team Lead' if I remember correctly. Once this system was implemented a lot of bugs were identified and fixed quickly. Most of the weakest templates were brought on par with others and great additions were made to other areas of the game such as housing.

As mentioned above, some of the grinds in UO are most unwelcome. It should not take hours to make potions for a vendor or instance. But, it is not just ingame actions that can be a grind. Also mentioned above and worth repeating I think is the grind of knowledge accumulation. Imbuing alone can take weeks to fully comprehend if a person has never dealt with a similar system in the past.

I believe another obstacle for new and even some returning players is the meager starting provisions. 1000 gold in not enough in today's UO economy to get even the most basic of gear. I know some will say that it is up to those of us who are established to help these people and I agree. But, there is also a segment of people who will not for whatever reason ask or accept a hand-up or hand-out. Some basic LRC gear, maybe not 100% but say 80%, a spellbook with more than ~18% of the available spells for mage type starting templates and commensurate equipment for melee, crafter etc templates. All beginners should receive more gold to start with. That book everyone gets when they first make a character should not be blank. Instead it should come with some basic information about the game. Links to the beginners guide and knowledge base on UO.com.

 

[Winker]

If it wasnt for Tram UO would have died many years ago.
AOS IMHO killed the UO we knew.
I have been here just as long as you and IMHO you are %100 wrong.

Yes UO would have died with out the introduction of tram, but only because EA don't want to run a game with a low population. Lets not forget Darkfall is like pre AOS UO and its doing just fine, so much so its onto its second expansion. EA want the mega bucks and would never be happy with few thousand subscribers as Darkfall has.

Felucca has been alive and kicking, for those who have played it up to a few years back. Even on Europa we could get 200 people fighting at a harry up to a few years back. Now your lucky to get 30 people fight over a harry.

So while UO has been declining for a few years, its being felt in Felucca even harder.

IMHO even F2P, which Mesanna has rule out, will not bring the people back. Is a sad fact of life that, people move on with there life's, get married have children, work all the hours god sends etc and they have very little time to spend on a game like UO, which requires you to spend so much time on. UO is like a high maintenance woman that needs your attention 24/7 if your not able to give her the attention she needs, your love affair is going to die.

We need to concentrate on keeping the people we have and hope that over a period of time people drift back bit by bit. But after 13 years of experience with OU im thinking that its not going to get any better.

 

[Petra Fyde]

As you all know, recent events have pushed many players to quit, which is a serious threat to our world!

Posts on this thread should should be positive, encouraging words for our wounded Ultima family.

Also, I'd like to address an issue that has long been ignored. How can we bring new players to our game? I understand there is an argument that younger players like fast gameplay and realistic graphics, but this is a stereotype that I do not fall under (age 20, started sept 2011) Don't tell me I am the only one. I commend our community in its intelligence, and would love to see any ideas regarding this issue posted on this thread!

Thanks- Mr. Plod

There are new players - what we can do is help them and not grief them. I sit in help channel and see many new and returning players helped by fellow players, and myself when I can.
I know of an incident recently that caused two newer players to quit - not because of a bug, or anything else 'technical', but because of the griefing actions of two current players.
People are trying the game every day - let's not drive them away.

 

[Leather Lucy]

It's not only astonishing it's down right disturbing and is a massive turn off.

Couldn't agree more! I have to admit if I'm feeling fed up with the game, the worst thing I can do is come and read these boards. Seriously wish they'd keep it to themselves, not every hateful thought needs an audience.

 

[Flagg]

UO has tons and tons of strengths no modern MMO offers. Community,housing, sandbox.. I wont preach to the choir about them
UO also has fair amount of weak points. Some of those can't be helped by us or the dev team or EA or anyone else(this game was developed at the very dawn of internet:O) Some of the weak points really, really should and could be fixed though. From top of my mind, brief listing of most MMOs and what " give us a try" aspects of them look to a person who has never tried it.

World of Warcraft: One of the few remaining sub based MMOs. Offers an unlimited trial.( you have a low lvl cap but never run out of time)
Rift: Unlimited trial not unlike that in WoW. Also sub based
Guild Wars 2: You pay only for the game box. No sub fees, no Freemium bs.
The Secret World: Same as Guild Wars 2 now
Everquest I: The original " UO killer";P Free to play now
Everquest II: Free to play
Lord of The Rings Online: Free to Play
Anarchy Online: Alongside with EQ I, only contemporary of UO on this list. This was propably 1st ever MMO to go Free2Play.
Dungeons and Dragons Online. Free2Play
EvE Online: Curious backwards setting where new players pay sub fees but established players have the option to cover sub fees with in-game currency. Two week trial.
Warhammer Online Sub based, endless trial
Star Wars: The Old Republic. EA's 200++ million dollar baby. Pretty sure payroll of single one of their voice actors is far greater than UO's entire yearly budget. Dull, stale void of creativity as a game. Also Free to play
The uhh Conan MMo from people who made TSW. Forgot the name. Free to Play.

Prolly forgot a few. I'm sure that is vast majority of active and alive western MMORPGs tho.

And among all these..
Ultima Online. Released in 1997. Subscription Based. Two week trial to try it. 0 visibility and help from EA.
I'm having hard time imagining what UO's pitch looks like in eyes of someone who has never tried it before and is just picking and choosing an MMO. Giving it a try should be made easier and more appealing.

- - -
When it comes to " what can community do?"
Writing an occasional " I play UO. Here are the reasons why I still do so. Here are the reasons why it still is pretty unique and awesome: " - posts on various gaming Forums, Facebook groups and other communities you are an active member of is prolly most simple and important thing we could do.

 

[cdavbar]

GL which is UO's trailer park.

That is awfully rude. The issue with GL population is players from other shards trying to come over and pillage idoc's and take rare historic items to sell on Atlantic.

That being said, OP, there have been and are too many in game issues to even go through, many of which others here have already mentioned. Sadly the last in-store (brick and mortar) anything that EA ever released was the 9th Anniversary upgrades. Even then it was sad because I was able to buy massive amounts of them from the "Discount Bargain Bin".

EA relied way too much on word of mouth for this game. While many players im sure have and still do tell people how much we enjoy it, I am afraid Flagg said it best:

It's like actually getting through to a situation where EA/Mythic allows you the honor to be able to give them money for UO is this rite of passage ment only for the strongest and most determined. Surely we don't want just any random impulse buyer who just decides to give the game a spin on one sunday afternoon. No, his heart and soul must be put through Mythic grind to see if he is determined and strong enough to deserve UO.

First the dev's need to take player feedback seriously. Not everyone can be satisfied but there are many things they can do to improve game-play for newer players, one being a full and proper guide. Stratics used to once have a good guide system that EA relied on, it is no longer "good" in any sense as I can never find anything like I used to be able to before. Many people refer newer players to UIGuide. I think that is even more of a joke. The Wiki "I hate Wiki's" takes a lifetime to load. For example, I solo'd faster than I could load up information on a complete list of mini-house deeds.

Once that is done and "vetted" so to say through constant and serious communication with the player base, there must be some sort of advertising and brick-and-mortar presence. Even if it is just a huge poster at GameStop....SOMETHING!

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Look man, this game is 15 years old and Trammel has been around for 12 of them. Get over it already. I mean what sort of dreamworld do you live in where they get rid of Trammel and the game doesn't shut down in disgrace a couple months later?

Felucca was a ghost town pretty much as soon as Trammel opened, long before AOS. Where WERE all those people who supposedly loved it?

I'm glad you replied with the reality because I'm tired of pointing out obvious, observable reality to folks intent on ignoring it.

-Galen's player

 

[Minerva Foxglove]

I do what I can to contribute by running a new Player House on Europa at Trinsic moongate. Welcome to visite! I equip new and returning players after their needs. I have written books with the very basics. Display items and cheap needful things, crystal portals and more. This is much aprecheated and get donations from crafters as well. This takes loads of time but I happen to have that.
Sp far so good.
What I cant to , and its my greatest wish that someone else would do, is a guild for new and returning players. Such guild becomes a transit guild , as during the first period of playing, people will find new friends or other ingame interests or feel they are up for bigger tasks. This is often discouraging for leaders if they think they are starting a guild that will develope ower time, and not stay on a new player level. But for one or more ppl that see this is whats going to happen, and still want to do something for their shard, this would make a huge difference for keeping players.
Open up your own guild for returning players is a good thing too. Please let people in and help them to catch up a bit! New players thou belongs among other new players , with some patient vet leader(s) , not wasting time on guild uniforms and fancy guildhalls, rather teach them to come on time and repaired so all can go out and kill and loot and have fun while learning. This way they can earn gold and experience and get the fancy equipment by thenselves, wich is more fun.
And it helps the leaders to not become as discouraged when the youngs grow up and move on, if they didnt invest so much gold and items on each and everyone so it feels like they used you to get what they can and rush off with it. Its like being a parent. Kids grow up and move on. Items dont last, but what you tought them and the memories of fun and adventure do.

 

[Flagg]

F2P brings other problems I would hate to see in UO. For one, there is no real world attachment (read: money) to the account. This brings out all kinds of hidious behavior. I have played several games that once they went F2P the language, racial slurs, scripting, scamming and all manner of negative actions exploded.

I can def imagine people who have no problem cheating in UO in various ways would be all over F2P in this regard. Scripters, dupers, etc. I too think holes in security that make their lives so easy must be patched up before we can even speak of FtP in serious, " imminent" fashion.

Other than that, I see things piling up on " good stuff!" scales by far outweighting the bad stuff. Way I see it, this game needs life. It needs more people who want to go running dungeons and champs with you on Sunday evenings. It needs more people sitting idly by bank and chatting away. It needs more people desperately trying to sell their runebooks. It needs more brand new people who have absolutely no clue what they are doing and start figuring it all out together. It needs adventurous lumberjacks who head to Fel to chop some trees. It even needs couple of trashtalking annoying PvPers who then kill these lumberjacks! UO needs life in it's purest, most undistilled form. This is by far most important currency and recource F2P provides to already existing subscribers.

I can't think of anything other than F2P or some other significant change in how one gains access to UO to bring this life in. Would this also mean increase of some size in all kinds of anti social behaviour, jerks and whatnots? I bet.
Still, one has to remember how ancient game this is now by all accounts. FTP or not, I'd guess average age and uhm..persona of those who actually pick UO over gazillion other games would always be such that this would never turn into much of an apehouse. Certainly not more so than ATL is today;p I think concensus on Roleplaying server of LOTRO (= griefer's dream) is that increase in population and activity is only really visible, significant thing FTP brought to them. It didn't magically activate a Tolkien fan hating griefer army from hell determined to ruin everybody's day. I log in there once every few months and at least on surface, community reminds me much of that in UO. No doubt experiences from server to server and game to game wary though, as your own experiences clearly suggest. In somewhat full seriousness tho, I'd be borderline exited to have to worry about something like 10 stupid teenagers wanting to ruin my day in UO. Haven't been able to worry of such in 10 years

Second, once a game goes F2P it also goes in to some form of maintenace mode. GMs go the way of the do-do bird and dev interaction with the community all but stops. Third, more often than not a F2P game last only a short time before it just can't continue to operate. This happens for a few reasons, that I can see, with no or little money coming in the company which owns it has no interest in keeping it running. Also, my first point tends to drive large chunks of the vet population away. They just have no use for all the negative things occuring in the game and find greener pastures.

In this regard I think our arses are very covered! I mean....surely UO doesn't have much at all ground to lose left on this department? Some 2 months back, It took me three weeks to get a GM reply on plea of help regarding house decay.
Most of the larger success stories in online gaming in recent years have been provided by FTP models. Turbine(LOTRO,DDO) are very pleased with how it all turned out for them. DDO was one leg in grave some..uhm 5 years back before they turned it into FTP. It has walked a long way since; they ended up releasing DDO's 1st ever expansion some 6 months back or so. LOTRO's latest expansion is few months old now I think. More recent examples would include League of Legens. Planetside 2 and World Of Tanks, all free to play, all absolutely massive financial (and critical) success stories. So from financial POV I'd say it is far from doomed concept. Even people behind TSW and SWTOR have been expressing optimism since conversion to FTP. And those were colossal financial failures to begin with. I'd also say UO has more potential in this regard than any other MMORPG out there. UO's itemization is extremely deep and rich. When combined with housing, it gives endless options for printing money off those dirty Freemium peasants;p

I too would much love to see some ads or such going for a change. UO's incomprehensible, utterly ancient age is in such impressive numbers by now that it could be turned to work for it's benefit. " see where it all began. See why it is still alive. " etc. WHen was the last time you saw an UO advertisement anywhere? (aside from our own little pocket universe of Stratics and suches)

 

[CovenantX]

Regarding new players- everyone started somewhere. It's up to us to help them understand what Ultima has to offer.

Just out of curiosity, How did you hear about UO ? I don't believe UO had much (if any) advertising in 2011.

 

[weins201]

Why is F2P even mentioned, if you did you already know it wont happen stop beating a dead horse.

Get it for those who love my replies F2P =

 

[Tazar]

i commend your enthusiasm, and agree with your post. However, EA let this happen and favor the player base of the trammie. Just how it is, old school players, and anyone post AOS liked the game for what it was, not what it has become. To get them back??
expansion revert. And i say that seriously, im a 15 year vet and come from 2 guilds in all those years. For over a decade the people who played thisgame played because of what could be done in felluca, content needs added to that, only realistic shot you got. Candy Land improvements only go so far.

lol That'd convince me to leave... I'd be bored to tears stuck with only the old content...

 

[CovenantX]

Help Felucca - Help UO. UO will see quite a bit more returning players, and surely new players following them.

Mysticism - Stoneform + Protection will be looked at.
Throwing - will be adjusted with the total weapon re-balance.
Archery - will be adjusted with the total weapon re-balance which will bring it up to throwing levels.
Melee Weapon Skills - Two handed weaponswill be adjusted with the total weapon re-balance and all weapon special moves are subject to change.

*has not forgotten*

Three of the four are hopefully being addressed in pub 81, according to recent announcements. *This publish could not hit TC1 soon enough !!*

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

I hear that in the next Publish all shards will be merged into a classic shard that's free-to-play.

-Galen's player

 

[Gameboy]

The only thing I don't like about Felucca is all the dead trees. I would not even mind having a home there if it was not for that.

 

[Lythos-]

Felucca was a ghost town pretty much as soon as Trammel opened, long before AOS. Where WERE all those people who supposedly loved it?

I remember chaos order fighting in bucs den DAY AND NIGHT. There were SO many people fighting. This was after Tram opened. That's not taking anything away from tram at all but people were in fel.

Back on the main topic. I agree 100% this game is WAY too complex and just gets worse by the patch. The quests, the keys and trying to find the info on it all. Stratics is a good place but in reality, i've been playing a LONG time and i still have trouble navigating this site to find the info i need. I had a long rant typed but i decided to shorten it some.

Imbuing was good. It gave crafters and hunters a full time use as well as put everyone with a top end suit they wanted at a reasonable price. Reforging is replacing it. These suits will last forever and eventually kill the underworld (just like doom died off)when nobody will need ingredients anymore.

We don't need any more mods on suits. We don't need anymore complex quests with superbeasts just to fill content quota. What we need is a way to make every part of the game useful and work hand in hand instead of "we'll add this for a while then add something else in to replace it and milk it unitl people get tired of it". All these ideas need to be thought out more before being implimented. UO is supposed to be about community not just short term content to keep us going.

 

[Mr. Plod]

I hear that in the next Publish all shards will be merged into a classic shard that's free-to-play.

-Galen's player

Boy I sure hope they don't do anything this extreme. Big changes like this scare me, especially since the revert..
This thread is becoming very productive!

But lets not focus too much on this f2p idea. This is out of our hands, and more input on this concept is probably futile. I'd like to see some ideas that would promote UO. It is the greatest mmo available and the honest truth is that I had never heard about it until my aunt (12+ year veteran) got me started on one of her accounts. I fell in love.

 

[T-Hunt]

No game can have a full loot pvp and stay for long.
Look at Dark Fall ,people would rather greif you and run players off, then wonder were did everyone go.
AOS did ruin the weapon and armor setup that i liked, not a spreadsheet tunic. like today.

They did give me some hope with High seas , but that was short lived when they just seemed to drop any futher use of the oceans and ships.

Like white nets for example, i wont toss one , because the chance of main boss poping up, and needing half the server to kill him, wont happen on most servers.

Plus the pure 100% bull crap devs have been saying for the pass 12 years or more.
Whe will fix boting and scripting, ya lets hear another one.

I had a talk with someone last night, he told me there is one char alone that been using scripts to place houses and loot before you can blink .
The amount of money EA has lost to offline sellers has been another cause of players fed up competing against bots for reasources or pixel loot .

Dupping has added to this , the price of transfer tokens going from 20 mill to 60 on some shards is all based on what they can sell the gold for after.
Im sorry but its hard to find anything positive about UO .
Only thing keeping me here is freind will only play this because he has trouble to see other games properly.

And some of the players and UO are still the best, minus the Fel dribble morons.
You can and will continue to beat this post about what UO needs or how to make it beter for months or if lucky years to come.

I just hope to see a player base in the next few years still here, as it seems EA just wants UO to roll over and die.

 

[LordDrago]

The only thing I don't like about Felucca is all the dead trees. I would not even mind having a home there if it was not for that.

Have you tried turning off desolation?

 

[S_S]

If UO went F2p, I'd quit. If UO went back to fel only, I'd quit.

 

[Mr. Plod]

From the perspective of an RPG gamer, I believe that the beauty of Ultima lies in its complexity.

UO is, without a doubt, the best SMG (social media gaming) experience there is. We need a stronger sense of community to make our world last for years to come. When I started, I was greeted by Lord Thulsa Doom, Lord Vladmir, and other old beta players who showed me GREAT HOSPITALITY. I was blessed, as players like this are harder and harder to come by.

Therefore, I have made it my duty to greet new and returning players with the same hospitality, and to give them the time and effort I can offer to get them started on my home shard ATL.

Here's an idea! Contact me via ICQ 621305299, if you are intrested in forming a council for new and returning players, where meetings can be held and ideas can be formed to further address issues including the extreme limit of resources at birth and an unwelcoming player base.

 

[Krinkle]

I think people are over-thinking the quality of UO's art being the big hurdle to people playing Ultima Online. Minecraft's art is purposely horrible and it brings in people and its not even an MMO in the typical sense.

As to the current plan for UO, Mesanna's producer letter gives quite a few clues as to the direction they are taking for UO. They are moving things 'into the cloud' not simply because it is the fashionable thing to do. Once again the internet, and how it is accessed, is changing.

 

[MalagAste]

No game can have a full loot pvp and stay for long.
Look at Dark Fall ,people would rather greif you and run players off, then wonder were did everyone go.
AOS did ruin the weapon and armor setup that i liked, not a spreadsheet tunic. like today.

I agree 100% there.... The bolded that happens here in UO as well.

They did give me some hope with High seas , but that was short lived when they just seemed to drop any futher use of the oceans and ships.

Like white nets for example, i wont toss one , because the chance of main boss poping up, and needing half the server to kill him, wont happen on most servers.

Well folk will come to fight them on GL's... but it's harder and harder all the time since the drops are few and far between most folk have given up on ever getting anything and see doing them as a waste of time and resources. Why destroy your good suit for nothing???

Plus the pure 100% bull crap devs have been saying for the pass 12 years or more.
Whe will fix boting and scripting, ya lets hear another one.

This has been an issue since the dawn of UO.... Sadly there isn't anything ever done about it. DEV's continue to make promises and tell you things you want to hear because they are trying to keep you playing... and I know they "want" to make some things happen but working with the code of UO that is 15+ years old is getting I'm sure more and more difficult. Not to mention finding folk who still know how to program such code can't be too easy either... everytime they try to update us they fail epically...

I had a talk with someone last night, he told me there is one char alone that been using scripts to place houses and loot before you can blink .
The amount of money EA has lost to offline sellers has been another cause of players fed up competing against bots for reasources or pixel loot .

Dupping has added to this , the price of transfer tokens going from 20 mill to 60 on some shards is all based on what they can sell the gold for after.
Im sorry but its hard to find anything positive about UO .
Only thing keeping me here is freind will only play this because he has trouble to see other games properly.

And some of the players and UO are still the best, minus the Fel dribble morons.
You can and will continue to beat this post about what UO needs or how to make it beter for months or if lucky years to come.

I just hope to see a player base in the next few years still here, as it seems EA just wants UO to roll over and die.

Duping has been around since the beginning and it's an ever changing monster. Adding in something that seemingly is innocent turns into a nightmare... As for that subject nothing will tick me off faster than what has been done in the past in regards to duping ..... I'm still VERY angry over some of it....... very sore subject.


As for the scripters I have just about had it with mister spam at Haven bot guy..... I'm fed up with watching the same 2 guys on GL's script loot every IDOC for the last 3 weeks..... And seeing all the rares and items from our shard get transferred off to Atl to be sold...... where it will likely never be seen again... least not by anyone who remembers what it was or where it came from.

 

[Shakkara]

The game is too complex and too much dependent on items. Note that I say complex, not deep. The game is deep and complex, but the depth is nice and prevents us becoming bored, and the complexity is confusing.

Going to play anything that casts? You need a lower reagent cost suit. How does a new player find one (especially on low population shard), if he doesn't know the goldseller sites that have vendor searches on them? Lizardmen and harpies won't drop items with high enough intensities so they have no choice than to buy it from players! Even with a vendor search it is very complex to understand what exactly to search for. What mods are good, what ones are bad, which ones are essential to my character? (seen noobs training with +skill items equipped, how would they know that that is a BAD idea??)

Maybe the new player wants to PVP. Well sorry, you can't PVP unless you have a full suit of arties, a load of money to waste on insurance, 255/260 stats, 720 skillcap + several 120 scrolls, and understand every little mechanic in the game, or you'll be pwnt. Can a 3-day old player contribute in any way to group PVP? Would anyone take him in? Probably not.

I put some cheap 100% LRC sets and basic warrior suits with stamina on my vendors for 3000gp. Within an hour they were all gone. Probably someone bought them all and unravelled them. Last week, I bought 5 suits for new/young players. But since the economy is so borked and someone is buying up all cheap items for unravelling, I had to spend over 100k on each person just to get them pieces for a basic suit, some jewels and a weapon.

Two of these people had account issues. One was on a trial account and had bought a key for stygian abyss and couldn't apply the key to his account, he was paging GM for 2 days for help and got no reply. Second one couldn't get a creditcard linked to his account so couldn't pay subscription after 30 days of game time were up. He also paged GM for days, no avail. Told them both to mail Mesanna, not sure if it works. But it's shocking to see two people in a week that are willing to pay for this game, and EA won't let them.

 

[Sauteed Onion]

I was going to leave it alone about why reasons why F2P are bad.. I think I will. I could just C&P a couple posts I made, but nah. I think I'll just be a good cat.

 

[Picus of Napa]

Could we get a sticky for us vets to share our ideas on what a person would need to do if they started fresh from day one? I would be happy to mod that single thread and delete any and every posting(even my own) that does not pertain to that specific topic. I have often thought of making a new guy on a fresh shard and sharing the process of what I did to do such but time is limited and being a vet is a hinderence to that.

Group help?

 

[Mr. Plod]

Very good points. This game is extremely dependant on items that take players weeks, if not longer, to obtain on their own. As for casting, maybe implement auto 100 LRC for players bearing the young status? This opens doors for cheaters, but at least it's an idea.

A few years ago, I started a mmorpg called runescape, which was a dumbed down copycat of uo. When I began, I was greeted by an NPC, who taught me crafting, fighting, and resource gathering, all before I was even allowed to enter the open world.

The UO team should implement such a quest for new players, illustrating the basics of gameplay and giving a taste of what Ultima has to offer!



I'd also like to address one other thing: why is it trammie or pk? How about 'you play ur way and ill play my way.'

The issue is not trammel, fellucia, or any other facet of gameplay. It is CHEATERS and BUGS that are bringing our game down!

 

[Petra Fyde]

Could we get a sticky for us vets to share our ideas on what a person would need to do if they started fresh from day one? I would be happy to mod that single thread and delete any and every posting(even my own) that does not pertain to that specific topic. I have often thought of making a new guy on a fresh shard and sharing the process of what I did to do such but time is limited and being a vet is a hinderence to that.

Group help?

Could you use this forum? http://stratics.com/community/forums/uo-players-corner.36/

 

[Tanivar]

I hear that in the next Publish all shards will be merged into a classic shard ...

And the mass exodus of players to other games that inspired Trammel would soon start again.

 

[Rhiannon]

So a free to play world, not just a trial account, would give new players a chance to experience the community ultima has to offer. Great ideas! This is a really big one it would take months to create, if it is possible at all.

I would like to see more posts on this topic! Maybe there are more realistic things that the player community can do to promote our game? Keep brainstorming, and please keep this thread clean and positive! Thnx

Mesanna has stated quite clearly that UO will never be a free-to-play. As she put it at the 15th anniversary party: "not gonna happen". So let that one go. They do 15 day free trials, they do "return to Britannia" month every year on the anniversary of the launch date.

The key to getting and keeping players, in my opinion, since Mythic refuses to advertise, is for existing players to bring their friends, kids, etc. and TEACH them it's a sandbox game. TEACH them to use their imagination. TEACH them there is a bankbox. And this is no easy task. My 30-year-old daughter recently signed up for a free account and I had a real hard time teaching her how to do what she thought she wanted to do because I had never played her way before.

There is a guide for UO: www.uoguide.com. I think there is a link for a new player guide on there. That's a wealth of information but other than the new player guide, you kinda have to know what you're looking for. For instance, if I find an item and I have no idea what it is or used for, I search for it on the guide and read about it. If I want to learn a new skill (like I recently took up imbuing), I searched for the skill on there and learned how to do it. And I search these forums to learn something I don't know about.

UO isn't for everyone. It does require imagination. There IS no ending. So we need to continually be looking for creative imaginative people who want to try something different, that has history, that is constantly evolving. And for existing players who get bored, don't cancel your account(s) like I did a few years back. Keep them open until you get in the mood to play again. That will help finance UO and keep Mythic from pulling the plug. They say it will be around easily for another 15 years. But I think only if we continue to support it and bring people to it who are the right kind of player.

 

[Gameboy]

Have you tried turning off desolation?

I do not know what that is. I did some research and found the uo.cfg file to turn it off, but it does not change it and seems to revert back to being on.

 

[Mr. Plod]

Mesanna has stated quite clearly that UO will never be a free-to-play. As she put it at the 15th anniversary party: "not gonna happen". So let that one go. They do 15 day free trials, they do "return to Britannia" month every year on the anniversary of the launch date.

The key to getting and keeping players, in my opinion, since Mythic refuses to advertise, is for existing players to bring their friends, kids, etc. and TEACH them it's a sandbox game. TEACH them to use their imagination. TEACH them there is a bankbox. And this is no easy task. My 30-year-old daughter recently signed up for a free account and I had a real hard time teaching her how to do what she thought she wanted to do because I had never played her way before.

There is a guide for UO: www.uoguide.com. I think there is a link for a new player guide on there. That's a wealth of information but other than the new player guide, you kinda have to know what you're looking for. For instance, if I find an item and I have no idea what it is or used for, I search for it on the guide and read about it. If I want to learn a new skill (like I recently took up imbuing), I searched for the skill on there and learned how to do it. And I search these forums to learn something I don't know about.

UO isn't for everyone. It does require imagination. There IS no ending. So we need to continually be looking for creative imaginative people who want to try something different, that has history, that is constantly evolving. And for existing players who get bored, don't cancel your account(s) like I did a few years back. Keep them open until you get in the mood to play again. That will help finance UO and keep Mythic from pulling the plug. They say it will be around easily for another 15 years. But I think only if we continue to support it and bring people to it who are the right kind of player.

Thanks for verifying that making our game Free to play is both out of our hands and not in everyones best intrest.

Our community is a family, and we should treat each other as such.

Keep the ideas coming! Brainstorming and working together WILL impact Ultima in a positive way!

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

And the mass exodus of players to other games that inspired Trammel would soon start again.

Yes it would.

I was being sarcastic and do not in any way support that idea, nor have heard any statement, suggestion, or inference that it's happening.

-Galen's player

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Boy I sure hope they don't do anything this extreme. Big changes like this scare me, especially since the revert..
This thread is becoming very productive!

But lets not focus too much on this f2p idea. This is out of our hands, and more input on this concept is probably futile. I'd like to see some ideas that would promote UO. It is the greatest mmo available and the honest truth is that I had never heard about it until my aunt (12+ year veteran) got me started on one of her accounts. I fell in love.

I was being sarcastic and do not in any way support that idea, nor have heard any statement, suggestion, or inference that it's happening.

-Galen's player

 

[Picus of Napa]

Could you use this forum? http://stratics.com/community/forums/uo-players-corner.36/

I don't see why not. Is there a sticky at the top of the Hall directing people there? Something called "Hey are you new to the game? Look in here first for information."

 

[Petra Fyde]

Not currently, no. I'll look into that idea.
How much do people read stickies?

 

[Mr. Plod]

T

Yes it would.

I was being sarcastic and do not in any way support that idea, nor have heard any statement, suggestion, or inference that it's happening.

-Galen's player

Thanks for clearing that up lol. Noone likes a troll.