Shards I'm currently considering...

[TheMiner]

Catskills
Great Lakes
Lake Austin

Checked out LA a bit, Luna seemed dead except for 3 people. I know it can vary by time of day etc.

But not including Atlantic since that seems like a bunch of summer vacation degenerates.

What are the currently / year round decent crowd shards. Probably wont be able to afford to move until Dec. But my list of consideration is that currently above.

I mean, I don't mind some alone time but also don't want to be a Last Man on Earth kind of thing, good show btw. Sucks how they "ended" it though.

Ty.

Edit: Any transfer locked shards are a nogo as I have a 20yr old family to keep and don't like cross shard play.

 

[Tamais]

While lake austin may seem empty, we are there. Say hi in chat and we come out of the woodwork. Instead of bank.sitting, we are out doing different hunts. The big ones are usually on saturdays. Most of the people are on eastern, central time.
Hope to see you around.

 

[Freelsy]

I see you missed Siege. It has a stable ecomony with the best player base and has a higher population than all three of the listed shards. You should reconsider

 

[TheMiner]

I might check siege out if I'm bored but forgot to mention transfer locks are a nogo for me with a 20yr old family to think of.

 

[TheMiner]

I'm EST as well, Pennsylvania.

 

[TheMiner]

Oh ya, that list isn't final, it's open for additions.

 

[Cocaine1]

If you need PvP, the only choice is Atlantic

 

[TheMiner]

If you need PvP, the only choice is Atlantic

Don't need barely ever participate. But will retaliate.

 

[HippoRedux]

I would recommend Great Lakes out of the three. I play almost exclusively on Legends, one of the deader shards, but I have a small colony on GL shard and like the Community there.

 

[Snowdrop]

I think you should go to each shard youre thinking of playing and see how you like them, but give each a week or so to get the real layout of them. And don't forget to speak out in chat cuz most don't hang out doing nothing. Might want to read up on the shards pages and see what might be going on you could attend to get to know ppl there.Wherever you choose hope you enjoy your time back!
UO Catskills

 

[TheMiner]

I think you should go to each shard youre thinking of playing and see how you like them, but give each a week or so to get the real layout of them. And don't forget to speak out in chat cuz most don't hang out doing nothing. Might want to read up on the shards pages and see what might be going on you could attend to get to know ppl there.Wherever you choose hope you enjoy your time back!
UO Catskills

Right now, regardless of where I end up. I'm trying to figure out when I'll be able to get $80 to "throw away" on transfers. I mean paying $13 a month is one thing. But just pulling $80 outa my rear is another. Moneys tight enough as is, I just thought I'd come back and saw that Baja was deader than the last time I did this. If I can't transfer in the next month or two. I might be gone for good ;-(

 

[GarthGrey]

Right now, regardless of where I end up. I'm trying to figure out when I'll be able to get $80 to "throw away" on transfers. I mean paying $13 a month is one thing. But just pulling $80 outa my rear is another. Moneys tight enough as is, I just thought I'd come back and saw that Baja was deader than the last time I did this. If I can't transfer in the next month or two. I might be gone for good ;-(

Can I have your $80 ?

 

[TheMiner]

smh, read again.

 

[Xris]

Right now, regardless of where I end up. I'm trying to figure out when I'll be able to get $80 to "throw away" on transfers. I mean paying $13 a month is one thing. But just pulling $80 outa my rear is another. Moneys tight enough as is, I just thought I'd come back and saw that Baja was deader than the last time I did this. If I can't transfer in the next month or two. I might be gone for good ;-(

You can buy xfer tokens for in game gold. I haven't bought one for real $ in years.

 

[MaryForUo]

But not including Atlantic since that seems like a bunch of summer vacation degenerates.

hahahahhahahaa TRUE! LOL

i'm considering to move to europa

 

[GarthGrey]

smh, read again.

It was a play on Can I have your stuff...you HAVE been gone a while..

 

[TheMiner]

You can buy xfer tokens for in game gold. I haven't bought one for real $ in years.

Assumes one has gold to spend, the kind required anyway. That said, lets say I bought gold, at what people would want for a token I'm better off buying direct from the store which is back at square one for not having $80 lol

I mean your not wrong. But whos got what I'm guessing would be 387mil gold just laying around lol

Oh ya, the Chinese farmers UO has never wanted to stop

 

[TheMiner]

It was a play on Can I have your stuff...you HAVE been gone a while..

Lol hard pass. I got **** I'd never give up even if I quit for good let alone would never sell for transfer tokens like old school potted plants etc.

 

[Xris]

Assumes one has gold to spend, the kind required anyway. That said, lets say I bought gold, at what people would want for a token I'm better off buying direct from the store which is back at square one for not having $80 lol

I mean your not wrong. But whos got what I'm guessing would be 387mil gold just laying around lol

Oh ya, the Chinese farmers UO has never wanted to stop

380m isn't too hard to achieve anymore fyi

 

[TheMiner]

380m isn't too hard to achieve anymore fyi

Honestly not trying to be a smart ass but please tell me how I'm suppose to achieve that on a seemingly dead shard by myself and in what sort of time frame ?

 

[TheMiner]

And oh ya, buy the tokens with the gold on the dead shard to which no one is selling tokens short of using something like illegal third party sites or something of the like ? Which I guarantee you would have a "premium / upsell".

 

[Xris]

Honestly not trying to be a smart ass but please tell me how I'm suppose to achieve that on a seemingly dead shard by myself and in what sort of time frame ?

Farm powerscrolls from barracoon. On dead shards you can do this all day. Have someone you trust shard shield them to atl and sell. This is how a lot of people make gold to finance their high end toons.

 

[TheMiner]

That's the thing, for as long as I've been gone. There is no one I trust, let alone know that still plays and could do this. But I will admit the idea sounds good on paper.

Even then, with as flooded of a market that ATL has. I'm guessing that's still a month long if not 2 month project which isn't too bad in and of itself but still. Just trying to figure this all out. I do have one char currently on ATL from 2014 xfer.

He's got a bag space of 5, could increase that by maybe 7. But then the issue for him in any event, becomes who would trust me to give me a shield which I dont think I can use with displayed ingame age of 113 months (so maybe token) and something they need on LA from ATL when realistically they could do it themselves.

If I could get this one guy on ATL to say LA. Then that's part of my biggest issue right there as he's the guy with the cash to get my house started and MAYBE sell some of what he has to bank roll possibly one transfer for the remaining 4 guys on Baja.

 

[Dorset]

I wouldn't waste your $ on transfer tokens, its never been easier to start a new char. You could be farming the basic champ spawn within 2-3 weeks of starting a new samphire.

For me, I also enjoy starting new chars with little to nothing - makes you remember how to play the game. On almost any shard, you could shout out and someone would help you out for free with a basic suit to get going.
You can make 100k making/selling bandies for example within a few hours. That will get you a basic house placed and up and running.

If you are that desperate to take gold from one server to another, I'm sure there are people out there willing to exchange gold from ATL-LA. Post of the shard forums.

 

[Maximus Neximus]

@TheMiner If you decide to go from Atl or Baja to LA or GL I can help you move some stuff, free of charge. I can't move characters for you, only items, gold, or pets. I moved items for a few people during Rare's Fest, so I'm sure someone would vouch for me.

Send me a PM if you're interested and if not, I get it. I am pretty busy this month at work, but I should be around at least briefly daily.

 

[Lady Michelle]

That's the thing, for as long as I've been gone. There is no one I trust, let alone know that still plays and could do this. But I will admit the idea sounds good on paper.

Even then, with as flooded of a market that ATL has. I'm guessing that's still a month long if not 2 month project which isn't too bad in and of itself but still. Just trying to figure this all out. I do have one char currently on ATL from 2014 xfer.

He's got a bag space of 5, could increase that by maybe 7. But then the issue for him in any event, becomes who would trust me to give me a shield which I dont think I can use with displayed ingame age of 113 months (so maybe token) and something they need on LA from ATL when realistically they could do it themselves.

If I could get this one guy on ATL to say LA. Then that's part of my biggest issue right there as he's the guy with the cash to get my house started and MAYBE sell some of what he has to bank roll possibly one transfer for the remaining 4 guys on Baja.

shard shields and the tokens are account bound so it would be pointless to keep them when they won't work for another account.
just a suggestion make a new character from scratch on each shard you mentioned. then get in general chat and ask for help. really consider siege alot of nice players there. you are able to even have a house on siege and 1 also on a product shard.also join a guild

 

[TheMiner]

I wouldn't waste your $ on transfer tokens, its never been easier to start a new char. You could be farming the basic champ spawn within 2-3 weeks of starting a new samphire.

For me, I also enjoy starting new chars with little to nothing - makes you remember how to play the game. On almost any shard, you could shout out and someone would help you out for free with a basic suit to get going.
You can make 100k making/selling bandies for example within a few hours. That will get you a basic house placed and up and running.

If you are that desperate to take gold from one server to another, I'm sure there are people out there willing to exchange gold from ATL-LA. Post of the shard forums.

I started playing in 2000 so hard pass on wanting to start over just because it's "easy" now.

@TheMiner If you decide to go from Atl or Baja to LA or GL I can help you move some stuff, free of charge. I can't move characters for you, only items, gold, or pets. I moved items for a few people during Rare's Fest, so I'm sure someone would vouch for me.

Send me a PM if you're interested and if not, I get it. I am pretty busy this month at work, but I should be around at least briefly daily.

I appreciate the offer but I'd rather not take what I can through generosity of others and regrind everything just because it's easy now. There's a certain nostalgia to what I have now / have had since 2/8/00.

But ya, my final choices have been narrowed to GL & LA with one char on ATL to worry about thats fully trained and has a bulk of my stuff that goes back to 2000 along with my 4 guys on Baja.

 

[DreadLord Lestat]

Check out Chessy, it is small but the Paxlair Alliance has weekly meetings and group events at the different keyed dungeons. I would suggest using a few rewards on soulstones, and soulstoning the toughest to train skills. There are plenty of honest people who use their shard shields going to the different shards buying/selling or moving event rares. Many of them offer to take things for free if they have room. You can then remake your characters, add the stoned skills back and work the others back up and save that money for subbing. You could also move your main guy since he is stuck on Atlantic and just remake the others. it sounds like he was your favorite anyways.

You have given lots of reasons to not play, but it depends on how much you actually do. I still have characters on my first couple shards and when I get nostalgic, I go back and play them.

Baja is smaller and more quiet but they still have a base as well. Many of their residents have characters on Chessy that log in on Chessy to do the group things then log back in on Baja. UO is a sandbox so play it as one and enjoy. Welcome back!

 

[TheMiner]

Check out Chessy, it is small but the Paxlair Alliance has weekly meetings and group events at the different keyed dungeons. I would suggest using a few rewards on soulstones, and soulstoning the toughest to train skills. There are plenty of honest people who use their shard shields going to the different shards buying/selling or moving event rares. Many of them offer to take things for free if they have room. You can then remake your characters, add the stoned skills back and work the others back up and save that money for subbing. You could also move your main guy since he is stuck on Atlantic and just remake the others. it sounds like he was your favorite anyways.

You have given lots of reasons to not play, but it depends on how much you actually do. I still have characters on my first couple shards and when I get nostalgic, I go back and play them.

Baja is smaller and more quiet but they still have a base as well. Many of their residents have characters on Chessy that log in on Chessy to do the group things then log back in on Baja. UO is a sandbox so play it as one and enjoy. Welcome back!

Don't get me wrong. I want to play and I doubt I'll actually give up over being on a dead shard. But ya, he wasnt a fav, just one i xfered to atl 2014 for some stuff.

But all chars aside, token or otherwise is a full character transfer due to item count. Like full bags and banks all around... so rock and a hard place but as stated. the chars themselves even though some valid points have been made hold a certain nostalgia for me.

 

[Pawain]

Make a Tamer and come to LS. 3 community hunts at 8 Central each week. Sea bosses each night till we run out of sand. Like many shards, dead on most weekends.

 

[Tyrath]

My main prodo shard is Origin, don't get much deader than that. But I also play on Great Lakes, Lake Superior, Catskills, and Lake Austin. This is just my personal take on each of those 4.

Great Lakes: Kind of a snobby clique based shard. I started UO there so will always play there a bit, but it does get hard to stomach the snobbery and arrogance at times. It probably has the largest population next to Atlantic.

Lake Superior: Great friendly folks. I call it the Tamer Shard. A lot of good folks there that are very helpful.......... Well except for this one guy that does way too much bank sitting there

Catskills: Again great Friendly folks and one of the better RP shards. Not the largest population but a solid community.

Lake Austin: Very much like Cats in the Community. I have only been infesting... errrr...... playing LA for about a Month now since it is one of the shards up for my shard shield picks, so I guess this would be the pre PERV full infestation. I like it on LA while not a huge population it is a active population. I am really enjoying LA and actually even playing with and helping others there. In small doses..... I am still primarily a Anti Social hermit type player at heart

Other notable shards IMO.

Legends: Not much good to say about Legends now days. Even though I spent most of my prodo UO life there. Too much drama and complaining and a very low population. It used to be great but is a very pale shadow now of what it once was.

Siege: Gets a solid 50%-60% of my game time and is my overall favorite shard. That being said Siege is not for everyone with the everywhere Fel Ruleset. Like any shard there are some really great folks and some real Aholes. The Aholes can be more annoying on Siege than Prodo. If dying now and then and getting dry looted is going to make you cry......... Siege is probably is not for you. Gotta play Siege with a different mindset than you play on prodo shards.

Chessy: a good shard that I visit now and then but just overall is not for me or where I want to put houses.

Origin: A very dead shard by any measure. For me being primarily a anti social solo player it is perfect. It is also a pre WW pub release shard. Gives you a week or more to figure everything out in a pub before it goes to rest of the shards. IE the last pub, I had 3,000,000 in soulbiners in a chest and 300k in the brit fellowship guy before it went world wide. There is a small community that seems friendly enough but I play the Anti Social Solo A Hole type there so largely ignore them.

Atlantic: Nothing good to say about that cess pool. I finally demolished my 3 houses there and placed them on LA a Month ago.

EDIT: I also move characters over to pacific. STILL LOOKING FOR THE PERSON THAT GOT my Soul Stones from the the house that went IDOC there And the 6 MOnth GTC as a reward for their return still stands I would play there more if my characters max skills were not mostly on those stone LOL. But Pac is also a decent shard and like most shards a much reduced population from years past. But the core shard regulars are overall friendly and welcoming.



Don't care if folks agree with me or not, these are just my opinions of the shards I live on and shield to visit now and then.

 

[Pawain]

Lake Superior: Great friendly folks. I call it the Tamer Shard. A lot of good folks there that are very helpful.......... Well except for this one guy that does way too much bank sitting there

But he looks good!

 

[TheMiner]

Well as I said before, I'm torn between GL & LA but leaning towards LA a bit more the more I read etc.

But I do like how the more I look around the more shards I see with small but active communities, and everyone makes valid points and I wish I could explain why but cross shard play was just never really tickled me. Don't get me wrong I see the valid points made to it but def makes decisions harder which one would just argue then why not do it lol.

I'm going to see if I can manage at least $20 in a week to get my guy off ATL and onto LA. I mean hes nothing uber but hes holding stuff that could possibly allow me to get one or two more guys over in a month or so.

Really wish I had some vet rewards right now TBH but only at 113 months even though I started 2/8/00. Too bad I can't go to bed, wake up and be at 168 with 5 rewards available lol

But ya, at this point looking like it will def be LA but at least I can say I'm, back as a paid sub. If it wasn't for the fact I just moved 3 months ago and am still settling. Getting what I need to transfer everyone wouldn't be so bad.

Funny thing is, once I do get my 2014 ATL xfer on LA. He has, well tech, what I need to place an 18x18. But 20k short but that's easy enough to get even if I just flat out asked for it from someone lol

But once he's transferred and offloaded, I can get into really trying to earn some coin. Other than setting up one vendor and hoping for the best. Which BTW...

Hows that whole vendor system work now ?

Like before, and I know this was before the whole merged money thing. We had to drop coins, checks etc to keep them paid where the days paid were determined by what they were selling and the associated prices ?

So like lets say you have an apple for sale at 1 and hes paid for 400 days. Put it at 1k and maybe hes paid for 3 days.

 

[fonsvitae]

But not including Atlantic since that seems like a bunch of summer vacation degenerates.

But he looks good!
View attachment 102612

they say vanity got the best of him
but he sure left here in style
-Bobby D

 

[MalagAste]

@TheMiner Vendors come in varieties now you probably want the one that takes lockdowns but has a flat fee for a cost... no daily fee's... I don't know what it's called but it's new.

Good luck to ya.

 

[TheMiner]

@TheMiner Vendors come in varieties now you probably want the one that takes lockdowns but has a flat fee for a cost... no daily fee's... I don't know what it's called but it's new.

Good luck to ya.

Do what in the where with the who lol

First of many questions being, lockdowns ?

I get that in terms of locking / securing something to a house, but a vendor ?

But ya... all you did was give me questions lol

 

[MalagAste]

New Vendors were introduced with this last publish that when you use them take up lockdowns in your house like a chest would... but don't take daily fees like the old school vendors. They charge a flat fee which I think is 5% but don't quote me on that as I don't actually use vendors... so I wouldn't know.

 

[celticus]

Malag means that there are two types of vendors now: The one you are used to, that you pay every day a percent of what the prices you put on items on it, and is capable of drying your bank dry of gold if you leave lots of expensive items on it, whether they sell or not. I.e, the one we always have had, that people many times stoped using esp in low pop. shards.
And the new one, call it a consignment vendor, where you pay no daily/hourly fees, and you can put items on it for nearly any price (I believe up to 170 M?), and you will get charged a one-time fee of 5.2%, whether you leave your items on it for 1 hour or several years! But, there is also a little catch that the nomber of items you put on this specific consignment vendor, count AS IF they are items in your house. Which is really no big deal.
A sweet addition and about time they did this. So you will likely see a lot more vendors now, likely most consigment vendors, even in low pop shards.
The 5.2% one time fee may seem a lot, but the other vendor if items do not sell, as they usually do not esp in low pop shards, charge a ton more over time, enough to make your bank account bleed lots of gold, much more than 5%, FOR NO SALE.

 

[TheMiner]

Ty for that. I kind of like the idea of the lock down vendor. Never got close to capping but one time. Even then, I have the ML booster but can still buy the one from the shop when I have the funds to do it, a house in game etc.

 

[Pawain]

Did some Scalis and Corgul tonight. I was afk watching Football when the others did 6 Mel Runs.

 

[TheMiner]

Did some Scalis and Corgul tonight. I was afk watching Football when the others did 6 Mel Runs.

View attachment 102613

I use to do stuff like that back in the day. Hrs can go by so quick.

 

[Xris]

Did some Scalis and Corgul tonight. I was afk watching Football when the others did 6 Mel Runs.

View attachment 102613

All patriots! Bean pride!

 

[Tyrath]

Ty for that. I kind of like the idea of the lock down vendor. Never got close to capping but one time. Even then, I have the ML booster but can still buy the one from the shop when I have the funds to do it, a house in game etc.

The new commission vendors are the way to go on lower pop shards. Think they cost 28k up front to buy one at the bank but nope don't have to constantly feed them gold. And the 5.25% is cheap compared to the old vendor charges where things move slower.

 

[TheMiner]

So wait, it's even a new style of contract ? Like you can't just use the old "deeds" or whatever they were and just tell it what kind you want ?

Not complaining, just think that could have been done simpler if that's the case.

 

[Tyrath]

So wait, it's even a new style of contract ? Like you can't just use the old "deeds" or whatever they were and just tell it what kind you want ?

Not complaining, just think that could have been done simpler if that's the case.

It is simple just buy the Commission vendor contract and place it instead of the old vendor rental contracts. Can still use the old style contracts which if you are selling on a shard where things move fast they are the better option. As others have said the one minor catch to the new vendors is they use storage space, so they can't be used for extra free storage like the old style vendors can. They were actually very well done and thought out.

 

[DevilsOwn]

Legends: Not much good to say about Legends now days. Even though I spent most of my prodo UO life there. Too much drama and complaining and a very low population. It used to be great but is a very pale shadow now of what it once was.

like a knife in my heart, sir

that drama shows up less and less lately, thank the ghods - lots of us still around having a good time

 

[railshot]

Checked out LA a bit, Luna seemed dead except for 3 people. I know it can vary by time of day etc.

Unless you really need crowds everywhere, I would not judge activity levels by Luna. On my shard Luna is completely empty more often then not. But there is a number of guilds active enough where you do not need to look for things to do if you are member. As a bonus, there is almost no griefing, and you do not need to fight for spawn.

 

[Tyrath]

like a knife in my heart, sir

that drama shows up less and less lately, thank the ghods - lots of us still around having a good time

Nothing towards you I played a combination Legends/Siege only for most of my 22 years in game. Started all new characters when Legends came online and rarely logged back into GL after that. Without going into much detail about what turned me off to the legends Community overall, the sheer amount of venom directed at myself and three friends that was between myself and those three friends. You were in no way a part of all that nonsense. And the drama was not just particular situation, it just got to where logging into Legends for me and some others was more exhausting than relaxing. I am pretty sure all four of us at different points said screw it, packed up our toys and transferred to other shards. I moved everything to Origin, another went to Cats and another to Origin and the last to LA.

There are some great folks on Legends and I still have Legends Shard Shields on 3 accounts and will probably return and put Legends on my play list again someday. But right now still pretty bitter about how that all went down.

 

[TheMiner]

Well, managed to get myself one xfer token with a card I forgot I had. That being said. Now it's time to make the big decision of where to take my one guy from ATL that originally started on Baja. I could worry about another char sure, but this guy can get me a sm foothold so figured start with him since he's the only one on ATL to worry about.

Leaning towards GL but don't want to make the decision too quickly. Need to shard hop a few shards but leaning towards GL based on what I have sort of seen and heard. I know all shards display diff usage at different times but my end game is to transfer somewhere that's not dead but not as *hitty as ATL seems to be.

Ya ya ya, all shards have their idiots. What I'm hoping for is to find what I feel isn't dead but has a somewhat decently active player base which yes I know can vary at times. I guess the simplest way to put it would be not as crappy as ATL seems but not as dead as Baja seems hence my original 3 choices above with the more I read seemingly swaying me towards ATL.

Anyway, I have the token and now just need to really think this through.

Night all... Think I'm gonna go watch more Roswell while trying to figure this one out.

 

[celticus]

Frankly, I wish I had shields to @Pawain shard. He is awesome, knows the game super-well, and is in guild that does frequent very nice hunts, including the present content charybdis and all. I wish I could hitch-hike with him and his team. He is one of our pet gurus, a UO tester for pets and lots of things. Also in his shard there are other cool people like @Donavon, super helpful and very kind. Next time I get shields I will xfer to their shard just to be with these guys. I hope. You need to have a team that does fun stuff other than bank sitting.