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I don't believe you need to limit the bank box to 50 items. It's a FTP account not a trial account, so the game needs to be restrictive but not overly so - we want people to play even if they don't pay. 50 item limit will make long term FTP game play almost impossible. An alternate thought would be to limit the number of character slots FTP gets to three(?) so they they can't a bunch of bank mules.
Limiting housing to paying accounts should be a given. However, the right to own a house is not enough to warrant the paying accounts, so there would need to be some limit on the content that FTP is allowed. So the question becomes, what content does the FTP account get cut off at? Can FTP do champ spawns? Are they limited to a 100 skill level cap?
Limiting housing to paying accounts should be a given. However, the right to own a house is not enough to warrant the paying accounts, so there would need to be some limit on the content that FTP is allowed. So the question becomes, what content does the FTP account get cut off at? Can FTP do champ spawns? Are they limited to a 100 skill level cap?
i would run with the normal bank box...living out a bank box would be awefull but doable if someone so chose...but yes i think 2-3 char slots too would make sound sense...if they want more they would surely pay the 3rd monthly fee like everyone else does
+1
As you mentioned money wise, the devs will loose players who already paying monthly subscriptions for 5-10 active accounts who will probably turn them into 4-9 ftp and one paid for storage.
The amount of scripters will be ridiculous, which i dont mind
They could sell some uo bundles holding stuff like account bound mythical token, sorcerer suits, dungeon/cities runebooks, and a little manual etc.. To get get new players to explore/understand the game quicker
As you mentioned money wise, the devs will loose players who already paying monthly subscriptions for 5-10 active accounts who will probably turn them into 4-9 ftp and one paid for storage.
The amount of scripters will be ridiculous, which i dont mind
They could sell some uo bundles holding stuff like account bound mythical token, sorcerer suits, dungeon/cities runebooks, and a little manual etc.. To get get new players to explore/understand the game quicker
I know they have said a few times that FTP ain't gonna happen but what the hell this is what I would do if there were FTP accounts:
"For the month of December if you subscribe to UO get XYZ expansion packs FREE" or some kind of deals like that would work well and could bring in paying subscribers.
I don't think there is any point in limiting bank box though. If I was limited to 50 items with a FTP account and filled it up I would just open another FTP account!
- NO HOUSE UNLESS YOU PAY
- 1 character per shard (maybe 2 it needs some discussion) - This might also drive people to buy soulstones from the store or subscribe if they like the game = $$$
- Possibly limit skill cap to 500 or maybe FTP accounts can't user power scrolls (again needs discussion).
"For the month of December if you subscribe to UO get XYZ expansion packs FREE" or some kind of deals like that would work well and could bring in paying subscribers.
I don't think there is any point in limiting bank box though. If I was limited to 50 items with a FTP account and filled it up I would just open another FTP account!
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Access to all content would require all paying accounts to receive any expansion they don't currently have. They're would also be a need to rethink the jump from FTP to Subscription. Other FTP just requires someone to sub, UO would have to be similar and drop the purchase of the game plus two expansions and a sub to make that jump from FTP.
Ok, so all access, skill level cap at 100, three character slots, no housing. Is this enough to both encourage FTP people to play and still leave enough incentive for people to Sub?
I think another given is FTP accounts don't acquire time toward Vet status while not subbed.
Ok, so all access, skill level cap at 100, three character slots, no housing. Is this enough to both encourage FTP people to play and still leave enough incentive for people to Sub?
I think another given is FTP accounts don't acquire time toward Vet status while not subbed.
F2P would only work with same rules as trial accounts, if not then people will find ways to abuse the system and it will be counterproductive
Trial Account Restrictions:
Trial Account Restrictions:
- Players are not allowed to place a house while on a trial account
- Players are not allowed to co-own or be traded a house while on a trial account
- Trial accounts have travel restrictions –
- Cannot visit Felucca dungeons or Felucca T2A
- Trial Accounts have the following resource restrictions –
- Will only receive basic ores and logs (iron, plain logs) even if they’d otherwise qualify for better types
- Will not receive sand or stone when mining
- Trial Account Misc. restrictions –
- Will not receive ML rewards for resource gathering (jewels, ingredients, and white pearls while fishing)
- Will not receive rewards, monster kill points, or virtue points from champ spawns
- Will not get scrolls while doing champ spawns
- Will not gain Justice virtue points for killing murderers
- Cannot use Valor or Justice virtues
- Cannot Protect or be Protected by another player
- Cannot use Scrolls of Alacrity, Power Scrolls, Stat Scrolls, or Scrolls of Transcendence
- Cannot use Commodity Deeds
- Cannot do Community Collections
- Cannot use Soulstones or fragment soulstones
- Cannot use Pet summoning balls
- Cannot use Bracelets of Binding
- Cannot use the Bag of Sending
- Cannot do any repeatable quests – even if they are normally repeatable
- Cannot acquire BOD’s
- Can only join the Help Channel of Global Chat
Paid accounts (without skipping payments) should be given all future expansions/boosters free. if F2P ever happens.
Limitations are necessary with free accounts. Housing would be the biggest one, but I do agree, there would need to be more than just housing limited to free users.
Also, policing the game will have to increase substantially to prevent illegal activities. (scripting).
Limitations are necessary with free accounts. Housing would be the biggest one, but I do agree, there would need to be more than just housing limited to free users.
Also, policing the game will have to increase substantially to prevent illegal activities. (scripting).
I think a skill cap of 600 is unneeded and would cripple any FTP character from being playable. The skill level cap of 100 should serve enough to limit that aspect of game play without hobbling FTP.
You do make a good point about soul stones though. At least two character slots encourages soul stone purchases
You just ruined it right there!
I think three chars would be too many. If you want to PvP on a competitive level the skills capped at 100 would put off 99.9% of players. If you wanna be a lumberjack and chop wood all day they probably wont care.
As Gandalf says above FTP would be a scripters wet dream but does anyone really care? If it means cheaper resources for me to buy then I would love it! The scripting etc. is up to the devs to sort out.
Agreed. There is no point to restrict the areas a FTP player can visit (unless they require a paid for expansion like stygian abyss).You just ruined it right there!
These restrictions would completely defeat the point of FTP.
Edited because I missed pulling out the PS restriction
After having a think about it I would now agree. 720 skills but none over 100 points. Wanna be a legendary mage? Pay up!
If a FTP can't use a commodity deed, that should discourage scripters somewhat. No scripters is going to want the hassle of moving 60k resources from a FTP account to their "main" account just so the can deed it and if they do - they're the kind of scripters that's going to get around any restriction anyway.
300ping for ftp users! And tons of packet loss! Ur killing it @Archnight lolGotta pay to PVP, same as with duels @Lord Gandalf hehe
Well you get the play the game for FREE... F2P will only work with restrictions and trial accounts were created to let people play UO for 14 days FREE without abusing the system. So I say we remove Trial Accounts and bring in F2P instead with the same rules
The function of the trial account is completely different and counter productive to the FTP business model.So I say we remove Trial Accounts and bring in F2P instead with the same rules
The soulstone restriction alone is completely against the FTP model. We want folks to be encouraged to buy soulstones via the store. Same for the help chat only restriction, we want people to play FTP accounts get involved in the community and stick around. Yes there would be an increase in spam, but that's the sacrifice you have to make to infuse new blood.
trial accounts and FTP accounts have got to be different ......u need to to be able tp play the whole game FTP but with resrtictions... no house ... skill cap etc etc... to be fair there would be no trail accounts after FTP was launched it would just be free to play our beloved UO... but if u like and u want more u pay!!!
the restrictions we need to agree...to move this foward... or again we can bumble along going negative by the week
the restrictions we need to agree...to move this foward... or again we can bumble along going negative by the week
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Enziet
Journeyman
The game is almost 20 years old. Its not going F2P. It wouldn't help the game at all. It's almost 20 years old! The fan base that is still playing have been playing for a very long time, or used to play along time ago and are coming back now to check things out. They would have to change key aspects of the game to get any serious fresh blood to the game, even if it was F2P. Which in turn would drive away that small dedicated fan base.
By today's standards without it's small dedicated fan base, this game would be dead within an hour. There are two new mmo's launching soon that follow exactly what UO is, I would be shocked if they do any better than UO in this day and age.
Besides this, why are we discussing F2P for Origin shards anyways, when we all are very aware of the already existing F2P shards out there that the majority of the UO fan base plays on anyways. Changing Origin shards to F2P and limiting features to the game will just keep the current sub base subbed to the game, and the rest would just go to the already existing F2P shards that have no limitations. There is no win situation here unless EA decides to shut down the existing F2P shards. WHICH as it is a 20 year old game, would cost them more than it's worth more than likely.
This is only my opinion, not fact. So don't get all butt hurt over it internet.
By today's standards without it's small dedicated fan base, this game would be dead within an hour. There are two new mmo's launching soon that follow exactly what UO is, I would be shocked if they do any better than UO in this day and age.
Besides this, why are we discussing F2P for Origin shards anyways, when we all are very aware of the already existing F2P shards out there that the majority of the UO fan base plays on anyways. Changing Origin shards to F2P and limiting features to the game will just keep the current sub base subbed to the game, and the rest would just go to the already existing F2P shards that have no limitations. There is no win situation here unless EA decides to shut down the existing F2P shards. WHICH as it is a 20 year old game, would cost them more than it's worth more than likely.
This is only my opinion, not fact. So don't get all butt hurt over it internet.
so shall we bumble along going negative every day every week.. your call
again shall we bumble along losing accounts and player more than we gain them... and dont rtry to kid yoursefl we have new players replacing old one.. we dont....the land mass get emptier every month we can see this on the fullest shard which is atlantic.....the small shards have emoty castle spots by the dozen...... EVEN the devs need to have a rethink
Perhaps, but that still doesn't mean we can't discuss what it would take to make FTP viable for UO or that the Dev team may change it's mind at some point in the future. The in-game store would seem to indicate that there is a change in the works of some type. Is that FTP? Doubtful, but it does lay ground work for such a venture.
I'd also caveat that FTP is not some magic bullet that will automatically "save UO"; but I think we can all agree that UO could use some help.
so u my freind wanna let UO dwindle and let UO die... fine....hopefully others dont want this to happen and will tell the devs to have a rethink!!!!
LETS BE HONEST UVE PLAYED 2 YEARS.....LOLZ
Enziet
Journeyman
F2P will kill UO, you don't seem to understand what is going on here...
Right now UO gets guaranteed income from monthly subs, plus people that purchase retail keys for the expansions to have access to items in game. PLUS now we have the in game store, which if they keep adding fluffy items to, people will keep buying. That pays for server costs, a small dev team just to keep the game alive and kicking.
With the F2P idea, Yes more I'm sure a few more people will show up, but they no longer have that guaranteed income from the sub costs, they have maybe someone buys content, or maybe some fluff. If they lock features away it drives people to the already existing F2P shards that have no restrictions.
If you want to help the game, come up with something better than F2P. Your beating a dead damn horse that is long decayed. Come up with something New. F2P will only hurt the game.
Right now UO gets guaranteed income from monthly subs, plus people that purchase retail keys for the expansions to have access to items in game. PLUS now we have the in game store, which if they keep adding fluffy items to, people will keep buying. That pays for server costs, a small dev team just to keep the game alive and kicking.
With the F2P idea, Yes more I'm sure a few more people will show up, but they no longer have that guaranteed income from the sub costs, they have maybe someone buys content, or maybe some fluff. If they lock features away it drives people to the already existing F2P shards that have no restrictions.
If you want to help the game, come up with something better than F2P. Your beating a dead damn horse that is long decayed. Come up with something New. F2P will only hurt the game.
like i said ... lets keep bumpling along in out little uo bubbles untill we are dead....[end]
we either ask the devs to rethink or we die very slowly... numbers are going down.. yes slowly but hey are deffoo going diown... ur choice....
swim or sink.....whatever
we either ask the devs to rethink or we die very slowly... numbers are going down.. yes slowly but hey are deffoo going diown... ur choice....
swim or sink.....whatever
@Enziet hey i understand u play a small shard and u have your own UO bubble that we dont want to burst with a steady stream of new UO players
but its sink or swim time. for the game ...... why not put the beating the old horse cartoon back up.. that will help.... no it fxxxxxxxxxxxxx wont
uve played 2 years .. ur a pup....this is a 20 year old game u are trying to kill
but its sink or swim time. for the game ...... why not put the beating the old horse cartoon back up.. that will help.... no it fxxxxxxxxxxxxx wont
uve played 2 years .. ur a pup....this is a 20 year old game u are trying to kill
OUTSTANDING! Some of us have been saying this for YEARS. Just do away with the 14 days and you have the perfect F2P.
If you use the rules of a Trial Account and just make it unlimited time then it will not hurt UO and at some point in time they will either sub or go to another game. 14 days is not long enough to even grasp the basic concept of UO.
NO It ensures that they will not be used as multiboxing or fodder at spawns.You just ruined it right there!
If they are limited to the resources that a Trial Account is then it will be a waste of time to use them as a scripter account. As it stands now people have extra accounts for houses, are you going to empty your house into 10 F2P accounts with 250 items per char/ that would be 1,500 items per account that you will have to put into a spread sheet to keep track of. Now dump a castle into F2P accounts, that would be like 4 accounts that you would have to do. Its hard enough searching a castle and now you think people would search 4-5 F2P accounts to find one thing.+1
As you mentioned money wise, the devs will loose players who already paying monthly subscriptions for 5-10 active accounts who will probably turn them into 4-9 ftp and one paid for storage.
The amount of scripters will be ridiculous, which i dont mind
They could sell some uo bundles holding stuff like account bound mythical token, sorcerer suits, dungeon/cities runebooks, and a little manual etc.. To get get new players to explore/understand the game quicker
I'd say leave any and all housing as the only hard limit utterly restricted from F2P crowd. Maybe power scrolls too. Trick is to make em like the game so well they wanna pay for it, not annoy them into paying for it. Some draconian bank, char limits would be counter productive here. Most of the crowd it'd draw would be free-sharders anyway. I can't imagine them wanting to switch to OSI if said OSI provided some utterly handicapped experience in comparison to some free shard, heh.
Above is assuming some dream scenario where this imaginary F2P UO is also more or less free of exploits, hacks and relevant software..
I'm glad UO FINALLY introduced an in-game cash shop. Hope it generates decent money for them.
I'm very surprised said shop is, at least on CC, hidden in such an incredibly obscure location. Should def be a menu tree of it's own. Maybe there is some strange security/software-code related reason why it is where it is. They should start handing subs some small token amount of this sovereign currency, doing so would " teach" people to spend it. Makes the step required to buy more of it from cash shop that much smaller.
Above is assuming some dream scenario where this imaginary F2P UO is also more or less free of exploits, hacks and relevant software..
I'm glad UO FINALLY introduced an in-game cash shop. Hope it generates decent money for them.
I'm very surprised said shop is, at least on CC, hidden in such an incredibly obscure location. Should def be a menu tree of it's own. Maybe there is some strange security/software-code related reason why it is where it is. They should start handing subs some small token amount of this sovereign currency, doing so would " teach" people to spend it. Makes the step required to buy more of it from cash shop that much smaller.
My suggestion to bring folk back to looking at UO... write to EA games and pressure them to get it on Steam...
We've been greenlit for long enough... without EA oking getting it on Steam.... we are just going to spin our tires in circles going nowhere...
Just my thought... FTP or not... without some sort of marketing UO is fading into the sunset.
We've been greenlit for long enough... without EA oking getting it on Steam.... we are just going to spin our tires in circles going nowhere...
Just my thought... FTP or not... without some sort of marketing UO is fading into the sunset.
so quite simply some folks will defend and deny FTP ideas at any cost .....
no its not on the agenda - but it bloody well should be.....because UO is shrinking in numbers/players and it will keep shrinking in numbers- not a doom and gloom post....this is a fact we can all see it with our own eyes....so we either do something about it or close our eyes and let it happen
And the main reasons i see above ...because some folks dont want any more competition at smaller shard champs/spawns and events......WOW !!
no its not on the agenda - but it bloody well should be.....because UO is shrinking in numbers/players and it will keep shrinking in numbers- not a doom and gloom post....this is a fact we can all see it with our own eyes....so we either do something about it or close our eyes and let it happen
And the main reasons i see above ...because some folks dont want any more competition at smaller shard champs/spawns and events......WOW !!
FTP could be no limit account but no housung but only 1 char per account.....if they want more chars they buy them from the ingame store.... extra char upgrades etc etc
one char is more than enough for free to be fair... yes they can make 2 accounts and have 2 chars...but ksara.....they still have to live out a bankbox... and id rather see more folks playing for free than few or no folks at all....
we need a way to breathe new life into our beloved UO and i feel a discussion on FTP is a way forward...alas u will always get the beat the dead horse brigade who dont want changes to there little UO bubble world
one char is more than enough for free to be fair... yes they can make 2 accounts and have 2 chars...but ksara.....they still have to live out a bankbox... and id rather see more folks playing for free than few or no folks at all....
we need a way to breathe new life into our beloved UO and i feel a discussion on FTP is a way forward...alas u will always get the beat the dead horse brigade who dont want changes to there little UO bubble world
A slight difference between cleverness and laziness, creativity, and knowledge... So i wouldn't just call it cleverness, i think they are cleaver enough to keep giving some pixels to players at EM events, halloween crap to keep UO population on drugs, instead of improving the game itself starting with bug fixes, and game balance and mechanics, pvp content, and marketing strategies...