After lots of discussion of Mesanna's intervention at a recent idoc to save a players soulstones it made me finally post my views about the need for an idoc change.
Why were idocs originally made to drop all loot to the ground?
--- because the servers couldnt handle storing that many items.
But that function is obsolete. with the current playerbase, every single house/castle/etc could have all those items stored in the system waiting for the player to return.
This is just a plain fact. i dont think there is any risk of the player base increasing tenfold to overflow the servers anytime soon.
What this would accomplish:
--- players whos houses fell would be much more likely to return to the game rather than never come back.
--- it would give daily game content higher value, and more of a reason to play. right now we have a flood of items from 20 years of players because very few of them are left to decay, or ever even temporarily leave the economy (such as would be the case if they were stored in the players bank until return)
In short. we dont need items from idocs. theres plenty of items, and new ones spawning every day.
It would make doing content more worth doing, and keep more people playing rather than just buying cheap idoc loot to get those items. I would rather see players whos houses fell come back to the game than maintain an outdated system for sake of tradition.
Yes, the hardcore idocers would not be a fan of this. but lets face it, idocing was never "game content" but rather a side effect created to solve a problem of server limits. Yes a few might quit if idocing is all they do, but if a player cant find something else of enjoyment in all of UO than that person probably should find a different game anyway. Theres plenty of other things to do to have fun, and plenty of other ways to make gold. It would be worth saving the remaining veterans we have left in the game.
Now i know this wont be a popular topic, most people who agree with me never post on UOhall and will never see this post. Im sure those who left UO forever because they lost all their stuff would surely agree with me.
Before anyone starts about it, the "preserving history" reasoning is rubbish because those items could be returned if the player came back. and all in all, its the nature of all history, real life included that much of it is lost. thats the way of the world.
and yes, many people do come back to uo after losing everthing. but thats happening less and less. that arguement may be true for some, but much much less true than even 5 years ago.
I can not think of 1 good reason why we need idocs anymore or 1 reason they are not bad for the game in its current state.
Why were idocs originally made to drop all loot to the ground?
--- because the servers couldnt handle storing that many items.
But that function is obsolete. with the current playerbase, every single house/castle/etc could have all those items stored in the system waiting for the player to return.
This is just a plain fact. i dont think there is any risk of the player base increasing tenfold to overflow the servers anytime soon.
What this would accomplish:
--- players whos houses fell would be much more likely to return to the game rather than never come back.
--- it would give daily game content higher value, and more of a reason to play. right now we have a flood of items from 20 years of players because very few of them are left to decay, or ever even temporarily leave the economy (such as would be the case if they were stored in the players bank until return)
In short. we dont need items from idocs. theres plenty of items, and new ones spawning every day.
It would make doing content more worth doing, and keep more people playing rather than just buying cheap idoc loot to get those items. I would rather see players whos houses fell come back to the game than maintain an outdated system for sake of tradition.
Yes, the hardcore idocers would not be a fan of this. but lets face it, idocing was never "game content" but rather a side effect created to solve a problem of server limits. Yes a few might quit if idocing is all they do, but if a player cant find something else of enjoyment in all of UO than that person probably should find a different game anyway. Theres plenty of other things to do to have fun, and plenty of other ways to make gold. It would be worth saving the remaining veterans we have left in the game.
Now i know this wont be a popular topic, most people who agree with me never post on UOhall and will never see this post. Im sure those who left UO forever because they lost all their stuff would surely agree with me.
Before anyone starts about it, the "preserving history" reasoning is rubbish because those items could be returned if the player came back. and all in all, its the nature of all history, real life included that much of it is lost. thats the way of the world.
and yes, many people do come back to uo after losing everthing. but thats happening less and less. that arguement may be true for some, but much much less true than even 5 years ago.
I can not think of 1 good reason why we need idocs anymore or 1 reason they are not bad for the game in its current state.