Shut up and take our money

[dukarlo]

I have shields for gl atl and ls. I basicly played my whole uo life on gl but used my shields to permanently move all my chars to atl. Why? Because that's where the players are and uo is better with more players and 3 or 4 of my best long time friends did the same. Other than that I think I visited gl with one character once in the last couple years. I've never once used the ls shield and my transfer tokens are just amassing. I don't understand what's so game breaking about them. Yea it sucks people haven't remained on their longtime shards but that happened long before shard shields came out. I'm able to farm all I need on atl just like anyone is able to farm on their homeshard.

It seems as tho scrolls and event items are the biggest gripes because they are sent off thier native shards. Simple solution is to make those shard bound. The cross sharders jack those prices up and leave little stock on their native shards. Make them shard bound. If you can't move them to atl problem solved. Would probably reduce people multi clienting toother than that I don't see how they are gamebreaking.. I personally could care less about event items they are shard specific and should stay that way. As far as scrolls go let people fight for them as intended in their homeshards. Farming scrolls is not as hard as peeps make it out. It Just takes time and effort like anything else valuable.Just my opinion.

 

[HoneythornGump]

I don't understand what's so game breaking about them. Yea it sucks people haven't remained on their longtime shards but that happened long before shard shields came out.

Not it didn't..your spewing absolute nonesense. Shard Shields were released with Publish 73 in November of 2011...over 6 years ago.

The reason you don't understand it is because the damage is already done, and it's irreversible. "Memory is a great liar."...

Shards Shields have directly turned somewhat healthy shards into wastelands, because items can be moved with zero overhead to Atlantic, and be sold for X times more than on your average shard. This forced others to move, and in turn forced even more people to move to Atlantic...

Greed and the stupidity of the Devs won the day, and that is why the game, and many shards are in the state their in.

I set up shop on Atlantic for one reason, and one reason only...commerce..e.g.to sell goods that wouldn't sell on my homeshard, and to to sell them for the highest price I could possibly get, and to buy goods that cannot be found on my homeshard.

I'm done wasting my breath explaining to ANYONE why the shard shields are a game changer, any why they are imbalancing.

I still feel it's on the shoulders of the Devs to right a wrong, and make the item available to all players but make no mistake the damage has already been done, it has been grievous, and it can't ever be undone.

 

[Great DC]

They should've at least put a limit of one shard per server rule on it. In other words once you selected a ATL shield, it would be greyed out on their next choice. But like other have said its far beyond repairable anymore. The only choice left to start making a lot of things shard bound to help rebound the dying shards. That will still take a couple of years to even start seeing signs of since of how long people been stockpiling farmed stuff to sell. EJ isn't gonna fix any of this, and most people who show up new on dead shards wont stay cause they wont find anyone or anything to help them.

 

[MalagAste]

They should've at least put a limit of one shard per server rule on it. In other words once you selected a ATL shield, it would be greyed out on their next choice. But like other have said its far beyond repairable anymore. The only choice left to start making a lot of things shard bound to help rebound the dying shards. That will still take a couple of years to even start seeing signs of since of how long people been stockpiling farmed stuff to sell. EJ isn't gonna fix any of this, and most people who show up new on dead shards wont stay cause they wont find anyone or anything to help them.

Making everything shard bound is NOT the answer... What happens 2 or 5 years down the line when you decide you want to move to another shard?

1/2 the crap you own won't be able to go with you. Not a good solution either.

Certainly you could argue that you sell it on your shard and buy it again on the shard you're going to but that's just a big hassle... and a waste of time and effort.

What is needed is for the DEVs to stop catering to the greedy people and start making things more community and guild oriented. Make it MORE profitable or more FUN and more enjoyable to do things as a GROUP. Yes, that might hurt some smaller shards but in the long run, but it would start to rebuild the community that's been lost of late. I'm fed up with playing an MMO solo...

This game was intended to be played with other players. But you certainly wouldn't think that now.

When they already have systems in place that multiply the mobs the more people are there that same system should as well boost the quality and quantity of the loot. And find a way to encourage parties. Up the drop chances or something with more people there. However, they need to be sure that those more people are getting looting rights. Would hate to start having people with multiple accounts just taking a group of alts in that stand and do nothing while one person kills the mob.

But they need to encourage more interaction...

 

[Thrakkar]

Making everything shard bound is NOT the answer... What happens 2 or 5 years down the line when you decide you want to move to another shard?

Simple: if you xfer with shard-bound items, they become account-bound.
Ideally they would become shard-bound again, if you xfer back to their home-shard, but depending on the data they store for each item, this might not be possible easily.

 

[Mervyn]

I am the only one veteran who is willing to give up my free shard transfers for the betterment of the game?

 

[Thrakkar]

Definitely not my call. I think I got 79 or 80 months on my account. So I'm not even at 50%. With my previous subscription plan (roughly 1-2 months per year) it would have taken me 58 years to get there.
Now with EJ around the corner and me planning not to sub anymore, even that slightest sliver of hope is gone

Nevertheless, I don't think that SS make any difference. If you really want to run a business and restock all your valuables on atlantic with wares from deserted shards, I doubt, that 1 token (or a couple if you got more shields) per month is enough.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Not it didn't..your spewing absolute nonesense. Shard Shields were released with Publish 73 in November of 2011...over 6 years ago.

The reason you don't understand it is because the damage is already done, and it's irreversible. "Memory is a great liar."...

Shards Shields have directly turned somewhat healthy shards into wastelands, because items can be moved with zero overhead to Atlantic, and be sold for X times more than on your average shard. This forced others to move, and in turn forced even more people to move to Atlantic...

Greed and the stupidity of the Devs won the day, and that is why the game, and many shards are in the state their in.

I set up shop on Atlantic for one reason, and one reason only...commerce..e.g.to sell goods that wouldn't sell on my homeshard, and to to sell them for the highest price I could possibly get, and to buy goods that cannot be found on my homeshard.

I'm done wasting my breath explaining to ANYONE why the shard shields are a game changer, any why they are imbalancing.

I still feel it's on the shoulders of the Devs to right a wrong, and make the item available to all players but make no mistake the damage has already been done, it has been grievous, and it can't ever be undone.

or maybe it kept people playing because they allowed you to go to other shards to get stuff that you couldn't on your home shard. How were you FORCED to move to Atl, you made a choice based on your game play, you have ZERO proof that transfer hurt or helped UO, people leave or move for a number of reasons and just because you personally do not like them does not mean that they did anything wrong. I can't sell a freezer at the North Pole but I can sell them in the desert so it must be the North Poles fault that I can't sell my goods there. It is called knowing what sells in what market.

 

[Lore]

It would cost me $140 to transfer 7 characters to a different shard. I'd never pay that. I would pay $5 a pop though.

We're all worried about their loss of income, but I'd love to see how many people actually pay $20 for a transfer. I'd pay $5 a pop and they'd be $5 richer from me. Right now they get nothing.

 

[Thrakkar]

It would cost me $140 to transfer 7 characters to a different shard. I'd never pay that. I would pay $5 a pop though.

We're all worried about their loss of income, but I'd love to see how many people actually pay $20 for a transfer. I'd pay $5 a pop and they'd be $5 richer from me. Right now they get nothing.

That's roughly the common price in the industry for such a service. In WoW you even pay 25$.
Also it's meant for changing your homeshard and not like people using it now, hopping around like crazy to capitalize on it.

Besides, you probably would just need a single transfer. Stone off the most tedious/expensive skills. Remember that the char you're moving has 6x120 room for skills as well. Pack up move everything with worth and move it over. Create fresh 6 chars there. With attended macroing you have back all your chars in no time. That's even cheaper than your suggested 7x5$

 

[petemage]

Well, if people think having to beg other players for 14 years straight is something a new player is looking for, I have little to discuss any further. I would rather go play another game. Actually, that's kind of what I do. I buy a one month gametime code when I feel like playing but also have my account inactive for weeks on end. UO used to get more money from me, but I feel mostly left out so I spent it somewhere where I don't pay to be a second class citizen.

Of course there are friendly people offering free transfers for everyone. I would just like to see if they were also cool to say "I will depend on another player for 14 years" if roles were changed. But from my experience with people I guess the least would

Anyway, it's a mood point since Mesanna... yadi yada..

 

[petemage]

I am the only one veteran who is willing to give up my free shard transfers for the betterment of the game?

Not the only one, but there are some very vocal ones on the other side as well

 

[Lord Frodo]

That's roughly the common price in the industry for such a service. In WoW you even pay 25$.
Also it's meant for changing your homeshard and not like people using it now, hopping around like crazy to capitalize on it.

Besides, you probably would just need a single transfer. Stone off the most tedious/expensive skills. Remember that the char you're moving has 6x120 room for skills as well. Pack up move everything with worth and move it over. Create fresh 6 chars there. With attended macroing you have back all your chars in no time. That's even cheaper than your suggested 7x5$

Xfer Tokens are/were used by Rares collectors way more than anybody just moving to a new shard and now shard shields are also so please don't try to paint it any different.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Not the only one, but there are some very vocal ones on the other side as well

So you have shard shields and have thrown them away. And please show us anywhere that the people offering free transfer say you have to beg, now that is funny. Have fun at your new game.

 

[petemage]

So you have shard shields and have thrown them away. And please show us anywhere that the people offering free transfer say you have to beg, now that is funny. Have fun at your new game.

Learn to read Frodo. Yea, I had over 9000 shard shields and threw them all on the ground!!!!

I'm also not gone. But I outlined why I spent my money on other games but less and less UO. Which is - oh snap - kinda the topic of this thread.

 

[Lore]

That's roughly the common price in the industry for such a service. In WoW you even pay 25$.
Also it's meant for changing your homeshard and not like people using it now, hopping around like crazy to capitalize on it.

Besides, you probably would just need a single transfer. Stone off the most tedious/expensive skills. Remember that the char you're moving has 6x120 room for skills as well. Pack up move everything with worth and move it over. Create fresh 6 chars there. With attended macroing you have back all your chars in no time. That's even cheaper than your suggested 7x5$

This isn't correct. WoW, in this context, is apples to oranges to UO. You don't really have to transfer at all on WoW. There's very little reason to. WoW also doesn't have a free alternative for a lot of it's players that other players can't use.

 

[Lord Frodo]

This isn't correct. WoW, in this context, is apples to oranges to UO. You don't really have to transfer at all on WoW. There's very little reason to. WoW also doesn't have a free alternative for a lot of it's players that other players can't use.

There is another alternative and it is called getting to know the people that play on your shard and finding out if the have shard shields and if you can get a free ride or if they would pick up something for you. Contrary to popular there are good/helpful people that still play UO and wont stab you in the back and by talking to others it doesn't take long to find them.

 

[Fridgster]

Well, if people think having to beg other players for 14 years straight is something a new player is looking for

Not only is begging not required by me but payment isn't required either. I am also sure many offer the same thing.

 

[petemage]

Not only is begging not required by me but payment isn't required either. I am also sure many offer the same thing.

Yea, since you are all hanging up on the wording, I will put it another way: I can't just go ahead and pull it off by myself whenever I want. I don't play games for a living but for fun. And having to arrange meetings in a video game is not part of it.

So I have maybe that one hour per day to play, sitting half way around the globe, would you get up for me at 4 AM when it's a reasonable time over here, or do I have to get up at 4 AM in the night when it's like 8 PM at your place to get a transfer? Would I have to wait a couple of days for you, or would you just start a transfer when I say I need one ASAP?

Why would anyone need a car when your neighbour got one, right?

 

[MalagAste]

I am the only one veteran who is willing to give up my free shard transfers for the betterment of the game?

Sadly at this point, I do not believe that would fix things, we'd just go back to the brokerage system which was in place before... and I think it would just make sale sights that much more popular. IMO that would not benefit the game in the least. Most shards are too far gone to revive them with that. And I feel Atl would be destroyed. It's possible that a mass exodus from Atl would occur... but I have a feeling most the "XSharders" have long since built fully functional characters on every shard they enjoy being on... so I question whether or not this would alleviate most the issues or not.

 

[Lord Frodo]

Yea, since you are all hanging up on the wording, I will put it another way: I can't just go ahead and pull it off by myself whenever I want. I don't play games for a living but for fun. And having to arrange meetings in a video game is not part of it.

So I have maybe that one hour per day to play, sitting half way around the globe, would you get up for me at 4 AM when it's a reasonable time over here, or do I have to get up at 4 AM in the night when it's like 8 PM at your place to get a transfer? Would I have to wait a couple of days for you, or would you just start a transfer when I say I need one ASAP?

Why would anyone need a car when your neighbour got one, right?

So why are you playing a MMO if you want to do everything by yourself? Do you even talk to people in game or better yet if it is so inconvenient for you why are you here at 11 am PST shouldn't you be in bed according to you. And you are the one that said begging not us or were you just trying to get a rise out of us that back fired on you.

 

[petemage]

So why are you playing a MMO if you want to do everything by yourself? Do you even talk to people in game or better yet if it is so inconvenient for you why are you here at 11 am PST shouldn't you be in bed according to you. And you are the one that said begging not us or were you just trying to get a rise out of us that back fired on you.

 

[skett]

I keep reading how everything things is over priced on ALT so everyone takes items there to be sold.
I fund this to be false for must items I buy. My home shard PAC sells items for far more than Alt.
I do most of my shopping on Alt to save money.

Maybe it’s just what I’m buying that’s cheaper.

And transfers are 5 for around $30 to $35 bucks if you look for them and you can transfer around 935 items if you do it right with only 1 tolken, that’s only $7.00

 

[Tyrath]

I am the only one veteran who is willing to give up my free shard transfers for the betterment of the game?

Nope I argued for years to give them to everyone or to give them to no one. But I am of the school that transfers of any kind should never have came into existence.

 

[Thrakkar]

Xfer Tokens are/were used by Rares collectors way more than anybody just moving to a new shard and now shard shields are also so please don't try to paint it any different.

Not sure how you interpreted my post. I was hinting at the original intent of the devs, not what the players made out of it...

 

[Thrakkar]

This isn't correct. WoW, in this context, is apples to oranges to UO. You don't really have to transfer at all on WoW. There's very little reason to. WoW also doesn't have a free alternative for a lot of it's players that other players can't use.

It does not matter. WoW offers a paid char xfer. Why the players are using such a paid service is of no relevance. I could have named any other game with paid xfer service as well.

 

[Lore]

It does not matter. WoW offers a paid char xfer. Why the players are using such a paid service is of no relevance. I could have named any other game with paid xfer service as well.

Name one with free transfers for a portion of the population and $20 transfers for everyone else. Some other things that make UO stand out from WoW are...

WoW has XShard so it never seems empty even on a very empty server.
WoW has a lot of players so it's actually hard not to make friends.
WoW's chat crosses servers.
WoW doesn't have shard specific player controlled items.

 

[skett]

Name one with free transfers for a portion of the population and $20 transfers for everyone else.

Ultima Online

 

[HoneythornGump]

Name one with free transfers for a portion of the population and $20 transfers for everyone else.

Ultima Online

“The Prosecution Rests, Your Honor.”

 

[Lore]

“The Prosecution Rests, Your Honor.”

LOL

 

[Thrakkar]

Name one with free transfers for a portion of the population and $20 transfers for everyone else. Some other things that make UO stand out from WoW are...

WoW has XShard so it never seems empty even on a very empty server.
WoW has a lot of players so it's actually hard not to make friends.
WoW's chat crosses servers.
WoW doesn't have shard specific player controlled items.

It was just an example. Main reason I brought it up was that it was 5$ more expensive than the UO one.
All your 4 points are absolutely valid. And that makes it even a better example, since it it less required than in UO but more expensive. Still people are buying it...
The point is, in UO you pay less but get way more value out of it. Ergo, those 20$ are dirt cheap compared to WoWs cost–benefit ratio. And BS would be stupid to offer it at 5$.

 

[Phantasmagorian]

They should kill off some of the dead shards. Allow free transfers from those shards to other ones, but no new characters can be made on them and no new transfers can be made to them. Like Drachenfels. Kill it off. Europa is plenty.

As for transfer shields.. just alter them to be char+equipment only. No inventory, no items. End of story.

 

[Lore]

It was just an example. Main reason I brought it up was that it was 5$ more expensive than the UO one.
All your 4 points are absolutely valid. And that makes it even a better example, since it it less required than in UO but more expensive. Still people are buying it...
The point is, in UO you pay less but get way more value out of it. Ergo, those 20$ are dirt cheap compared to WoWs cost–benefit ratio. And BS would be stupid to offer it at 5$.

Like I said in my original point though... Right now, from me at least, they get 0. If they reduced the price, they'd get $5. I'd love to see the numbers on how many transfer tokens are sold at it's current price.

 

[Phantasmagorian]

Like I said in my original point though... Right now, from me at least, they get 0. If they reduced the price, they'd get $5. I'd love to see the numbers on how many transfer tokens are sold at it's current price.

I transferred 4 chars, I believe. From Drachenfels and Europa to Atlantic.

 

[Lord Frodo]

They should kill off some of the dead shards. Allow free transfers from those shards to other ones, but no new characters can be made on them and no new transfers can be made to them. Like Drachenfels. Kill it off. Europa is plenty.

As for transfer shields.. just alter them to be char+equipment only. No inventory, no items. End of story.

We all knew this was coming. Please show me one shard that has zero houses and zero population. There is no such thing as a "DEAD SHARD" also UO stated many times that they will not shut down or merge any shards. You must really want to kill UO.

 

[Lord Frodo]

I transferred 4 chars, I believe. From Drachenfels and Europa to Atlantic.

Well good for you, sorry if we do not want to come join you.

 

[skett]

We all knew this was coming. Please show me one shard that has zero houses and zero population. There is no such thing as a "DEAD SHARD" also UO stated many times that they will not shut down or merge any shards. You must really want to kill UO.

This made me think that they also said UO would never go f2p but it’s now on its way soooo you never know...

 

[Lord Frodo]

This made me think that they also said UO would never go f2p but it’s now on its way soooo you never know...

EJ is not F2P it is a beafedup trial account that you can buy stuff. I have played F2P games with a lot more freedom then what UO is giving. 2 chars when a trial account used to be 5-6 and we had bank boxes too. Lets go play a F2P game with no storage, gotchya.

 

[Thrakkar]

EJ is not F2P it is a beafedup trial account that you can buy stuff. I have played F2P games with a lot more freedom then what UO is giving. 2 chars when a trial account used to be 5-6 and we had bank boxes too. Lets go play a F2P game with no storage, gotchya.

Semantics...
F2P has always restrictions. Some suck more than others. In some games you even might have almost none.
Bottom line is, every EJ player can experience the same PvE & PvP than a subbed player can. That's F2P in my book...

 

[Uvtha]

I never said they owed me, I stated that VET Rewards were given out by UO for our loyalty and UO not us decided what we got. There are a lot of VETs giving FREE rides so this unbalance garbage is pure BS.

I wasn't commenting on anything anyone had said aside from that it's not hypocritical to use vet rewards even if you feel that other act entitled to them.

 

[Uvtha]

EJ is not F2P it is a beafedup trial account that you can buy stuff. I have played F2P games with a lot more freedom then what UO is giving. 2 chars when a trial account used to be 5-6 and we had bank boxes too. Lets go play a F2P game with no storage, gotchya.

People are applying all of these phantom attributes to "f2p". It just means free to play, which EJ is. It's true that many f2p games often share methods and traits, but really all that it means is you can play for free.

 

[Uvtha]

Semantics...
F2P has always restrictions. Some suck more than others. In some games you even might have almost none.
Bottom line is, every EJ player can experience the same PvE & PvP than a subbed player can. That's F2P in my book...

It is free to play. If you can make an account, and log on without paying... it's free to play. Literally the only prerequisite to it being a f2p option.

 

[Phantasmagorian]

Of course it is free to play, and people need to stop wasting everyone's time arguing it isn't.

 

[Lore]

We've talked more about it than I really even want it.

 

[petemage]

It is free to play. If you can make an account, and log on without paying... it's free to play. Literally the only prerequisite to it being a f2p option.

Yea but Mesanna personally assured me it's not and I really really want to believe her

 

[Uvtha]

Yea but Mesanna personally assured me it's not and I really really want to believe her

Yeah, I really, really, really do not get her sometimes. Just makes zero sense.

 

[Thrakkar]

Yeah, I really, really, really do not get her sometimes. Just makes zero sense.

Al Lowe promised, that there will never be a Leisure Suit Larry 4. He kept his word and just release 5, 6 & 7.
Mesanna promised, that UO will never be F2P. She kept her word and will just release Endless Journey.

 

[Archnight]

Allowing people to buy back lost months is the ONLY solution here, removing vet rewards or making them available in store just makes no sense... there's already free transfers by reputable players being done weekly/monthly and transfer tokens are available to anyone for a fee. If players were allowed to buy back lost months up to the account creation date for like 7$ per month it would be a win-win solution for everyone, I would even limit the amount of months than can be purchased every year as I could see people wanting to buy all of their lost months at once... even at a few hundred dollars lol. The key is to get people closer to transfer shields without having everyone on them

 

[Lore]

I don't even know that I'd buy transfer shields at this point if I could buy lost months. The account I main on is only a few years old anyways. I never bothered recovering old accounts. I think the better, and easier, solution would be to just reduce the price of transfers on the store.

The whole argument that players transfer for others isn't flying in my opinion. Transferring meaningful items just isn't a social aspect of the game for me. I just think the shard shields were a bad idea . Free transfer, plus people have abused it and ruined markets.

 

[Great DC]

If you say that you paid 14 years of subscription for shard shields and that others should do the same, I expect to go to your house and see it empty other then shard shields hanging on the wall. Technically its all that you paid for according to you. All you get to do is transfer naked characters for free to any shard you choose for no reason other then to say hi and free transfer back. That's how stupid that argument is.