A Larger, More Populated Siege?

[Guest]

I, throughout my years on siege, have noticed that we do infact get ignored somewhat by the dev team.
We are namely being ignored because our numbers are extremely low compared to the vast number of "production" shards...

We have asked them to change siege to encourage people on "production" shards to want to come to siege, and I feel the changes havn't been the best thing for siege.

What I propose we do is use our OWN methods of encouraging people to want to come to siege!

I am pondering some idea's, so you may have to bare with me...

I think we should do one of the following two idea's:

*DONATION*
One of the reasons people tend to NOT come to siege is for one very simple reason... they don't wish to start over, and who blames them for that?

I think if I advertised in game, on other forums, and had you guys spread the word about... I could set up a donation box and allow people coming over from other shards the opportunity to collect 50k starting money...

I think the small insentive that people wouldn't be starting out with NOTHING would draw a larger crowd over here, and ROT would still weave out most of the UBAR WARIORZ!!1...

If the donations where high enough I could possibly have them start with 100k...

*cons* There is a slight chance that people would double dip, and collect more gold then they rightly deserve... but I say let them, if they feel they need more gold to come here... then let them here anyhow, I see more profit having them come here then leaving siege as a dull "empty" shard...


*Lottery*
This idea is very similar to that of the Donation idea, but with a small twist... it would encourage people to donate gold, and it would encourage people to come to siege from other shards...

What would happen is, I would set up a locked down box at a house close to a gate (friends house)... and post when the numbers (5 numbers, 1-30 (Make it easier for one winner to be announced)) will be announced...

Basically you would buy a lottery ticket for 100k (price may vary depending on how interesting people feel this is) and you would post the name of your character buying the ticket...

After you post, you are free to place a book with your name on it, and the 5 numbers (1-30) in the locked down box...

The winner (or closest one) would recieve half of the pot every week (I'd announce the pot before the numbers are revealed)...

If there is a tie the pot would be split...

The remaining half of the pot (that didn't go to the winner) would be put into the DONATION Idea (see above) and basically would be used to start people coming to siege with more insentive to come here...


The benifit of having more people on siege, would be that there would be more people to say things need to change on siege... there would be more people to talk to, more people to fight with, more people out farming, more people crafting... ect...

I see this being very benificial as a merchant of siege...

These are my ideas... Now tell me what you think...?
*smiles*

 

[imported_SavageSP]

In my opinion UO/EA has created a large player base for Siege by alot of changes made over the last few years, they just dont know thats where they should be yet. Or maybe they just cant make themselves Leave all the Items/houses/characters they've spent years working on and collecting.
In my case, I just got tired of trying to "keep up with the Jones's" and longed for a simpler version of gaming. Spending hours upon hours collecting Gold for insurance, Peerless,Doom,BODS,1300+ luck suits farming Items to enhance, all so you could try and match up item wise with the rest of the Shard got Old. Not that it isnt that way here, its just not near as bad as the production shards from what ive seen. And maybe i was just Lucky, but I was only killed 2 times before I hit my 70's and I was more then able to Provide for myself with very little help.
Would you agree that here on Siege you can put on a GM made or runic made suit, a few decent jewels, 1 blessed arty or Uber weapon, and at least have a decent chance of competing? ....Thats how I see it here.
For me it took the majority of my friends leaving UO, to make me look at why I was still here myself, and in order to get off the "Hamster wheel" of collecting items/gold to compete I had to make some sort of change. I saw a Butt-Load of SP Posters on U hall saying "we dont have that problem here" etc. Looked into SP on the boards, and decided it was alot closer to what I wanted to do, Play more, Farm less. Ea has made alot of Veteran players just exactly like me, alot quit, some just sit around complaining about the state of the game. Im not sure how to get People here, I dont think saying we will pay you to come here is the answer. I think its more of a matter of Showing the UO masses that there is another option, then what the regular shards offer. And for them to find out the stories about Siege being Impossible to gain skill, and if you dont hook up with a guild day one you might as well give up are False. Its easier here to gain skills with less resources used, you just have to put more time into it. I think it comes down to People deciding this Ruleset is the closet thing to what they want from UO they are gonna get, and getting enough gumption to leave everything behind and start over, hopefully bringing friends with them before they quit.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Do you have any idea what kind of people this will attract?

[/ QUOTE ]
The ROT system should weave out the *bad* ones no?
Though I like the suggestions so far... keep going...
<blockquote><hr>

As far as your ideas, they do basically the same thing.

[/ QUOTE ]
The difference is simple... one would be an insentive only for the "new" people coming to siege... the other one would benifit BOTH... *shrugs*
<blockquote><hr>

We (or myself at least) would rather not send out a "Please play our shard! We'll give you gold!!" type of message.

[/ QUOTE ]
Another Idea could be a donation where we supply the gold transfer from their shard to siege, with reduced rates to encourage people to come...
Just a suggestion...
<blockquote><hr>

Unless you figure out a way to "donate" 120 scrolls and 5 months of ROT time, I don't think it's going to matter.

[/ QUOTE ]
ROT would continue to weave out the "bad" batch like I stated before... and the starting gold would allow players to buy more gear in order to start out faster... not to bad of an idea in my opinion...

Keep the comments coming people... I want to hear what everyones opinion is...

 

[Guest]

The only think I have a problem with... is that most people think siege is just full of 1337 pvperz and that sort of nonsense... when in reality it's not true... I think this would attract people from other shards to see what siege is really like... and not have to worry so much about items since they have some gold to buy more...

Besides... it's just a suggestion...

though I like the lottery idea... perhaps we could have half of the pot go towards the next lotto... and have one every week...

The pot would just grow then... no?

 

[Kat SP]

<blockquote><hr>

We (or myself at least) would rather not send out a "Please play our shard! We'll give you gold!!" type of message.

Do you have any idea what kind of people this will attract?

[/ QUOTE ]

I am in total agreement with that statement, but I'll go one further. I think ROT goes a long way in bringing the more "mature" types and less of the prodo kiddies, to Siege.

Certainly for some, ROT is a factor in the decision making process. Having said that, I think an alternative might be for guilds to sponsor [for lack of a better word] new players to Siege. It would allow for a number of things..

- A group to hang out with while training
- Spawning guilds could possibly help with attaining scrolls
- Access to basic guild supplies [Not sure how many guilds have this, but I know TnT, WAKA and KSS does]
- People to train skills with [Most guildmembers have templates they revamp from time to time and some guilds have new players already]
- A group to PvP and PvM with for fun, equipment and gold
- An opportunity to meet other players more easily

Of course sponsoring someone doesn't necessarily mean you have to offer guild membership, but that's always a possibility, or the sponsoring guild can perhaps hook them up with a guild more suitable to their playstyle. In the process, they have had the opportunity to meet some of the player's of Siege!

I may even run this by my own guild and see what they think!!

 

[Masumatek]

Raise Siege's population in 3 easy steps:

1) Rid the shard of all the trammy crap, like instances, ALL blessings (even Siege bless and especially 7ae gear). Make Siege as unique as possible. No one wants to play a half assed half-trammy Shard.

2) Change the way skill gaining and rot works. You shouldn't have to spend months training to get a fully trained char. Face it, yes Siege is "so much more" than a PvP shard with a great community, better rp, etc, etc, but at its core, Siege is a PvP shard. It's geared more towards PvPers, more towards reds. PvPers don't want to skill grind for months. Leave that to WoW players. A casual player should be able to have a PvP-ready template trained in less than 2 weeks and a fully maxed out char trained in at most 3 weeks starting from scratch. That's max....Siege is the vet shard. Imo you should be able to train fully in a few days.

3) Advertise. Many players aren't aware of Siege or all their info about it is wrong.


*bonus*
Imo SoulStones should never have been allowed on Siege and all current ones should be wiped from the server. Without them, one needs to rely on the community more. It makes the game more difficult. But now you can function by yourself with one account without having to rely on the community at all due to soulstones.

 

[Guest]

I had an idea actually for attracting prospective Rp people. It would be a "scholarship" program for the library I am slowly writing books for.

The basic idea is you post a list of fields of study on shard formums (maybe Uhall, but maybe not) like warrior, mage, paladin, necromancer, blacksmith, etc.

Then I form a guild that is tied to the library, that will offer no protection like that of NEW, but in the library its self will be chests for the newbs, and whatnot with basic supplies, and they have a month to be in the guild, and after that time passes they are asked to write a "thesis" pertaining to thier chosen field of study, in character, in the form of an in game book.

Each field would have graduation incentives that make sense for them.

Examples:

Mage: a 1/3 ring, and a full spellbook.
Warrior: a choice of one of these weapons: Arctic death dealer, Cavorting club, Nights kiss, Flesh ripper, Windsong, Bow of the juka king, Righteous Anger, or Talon Bite and 5 sets of GM barbed armor.
Thief: A buglers bandanna and 100 lockpicks
Treasure hunter: 6 level 1 maps, 5 level 2, 4 level 3, 3 level 4, 2 level 5, 1 level 6.

and so forth, each also comes with a check for 10k. They only get the cash and items if they turn in a book that is in character.

The book would then be added to the library for all to enjoy.

Members would be welcom to remain members of the library guild, and even if they depart would be life long members (friends) of the library.
Which would help build a little community hub that each "graduate" would feel like they contributed to, because they did.

I think it would work really well, and I hope to get it up and going in the not too terribly distant future.

 

[Kat SP]

While I agree with most of what you said, I think Gondor was trying to come up with a more realistic approach.

 

[Masumatek]

What is not realistic about it? I'm sure experience gains and rot can be EASILY sped up drastically. Advertising is easy enough. I already knew the soulstone thing wasn't realistic but that's not one of the main changes anyway.

So i'll assume you mean the changes to blessings isn't realistic. Sure it is. The devs were already prepared to go "all the way" and rid Siege of blessed items completely. Who can force them to do this? US. We had the decision before and we blew it. Well we shall make a new one. THE RIGHT ONE. It angers me beyond words that WE, the Siege PLAYERS, brought THIS upon ourselves with that stupid, f'ed up opinion poll. Screw what the majority wants. The devs should change and balance Siege based on what it should be, the "hard" shard, the "unique" shard. But no, they have to have democracy. They have to have votes and opinions. And what do the masses do when given this opportunity to change the shard for the better?-They decide they want to remain the half-assed half-trammy shard. They decide, instead of ridding Siege of all blessings...instead of getting rid of PBDs to give everyone one, and half of them decide 7ae gifts should stay. Why was this thread even made. "Fix Siege." "Raise our population." You guys want our population raised? THEN DON'T GIVE YOUR OPINIONS IN POLLS. WTF.

 

[Kat SP]

You always have been difficult. *Sighs* Okay.. I will explain what I meant by "realistic".

We are not dev team members and we cannot change the things they have imposed upon us. That is up to them and it has become quite obvious that our opinions on those things do not amount to much.

What I believe Gondor is trying to do, is come up with things WE, as a community can do to help increase the population of Siege, which is a little more realistic, IMO, than expecting ANY help from the dev team on this.

 

[Masumatek]

And let me explain what I meant. We DO have the power to change the shard. But the devs shouldn't listen to us. They should change it automatically to be as hard and unique as possible. WHY should they not listen to us? Because more than half the people playing Siege, according to polls, DON'T HAVE A FLIPPIN CLUE. If they give another poll offering to change our shard, nothing will come of it, because WE will be trammies and not let anything come of it. The devs should ignore us and do what needs to be done. Only when we drill out all the trammy crap out of all our brains should we be deciding what needs to be done.

 

[Guest]

Unless there are a lot of people leaving the shard population *is* going up.

There are currently around 40 people in NEW and I know of at least 2 new seige players that aren't in the guild.

Terry and I came last month. We came for the challenge, for the enjoyment of working out how to do things and get things for ourselves.
We are spending a fair amount of time trying to refuse gifts without giving offence! We most definitely don't want any 50k hand out, ta very much.

We're really enjoying being here, we've had a fabulous welcome, but we don't want everything handed to us on a plate, from our point of view that defeats the whole object.

There's satisfaction to be derived from working out which skill to work first as a crafter to enable you to work the others. There's a sense of achievement in making your first sale of resources etc.

So while we have accepted some things with gratitude *pats lovely fire beetle* We'd rather do as much as we can for ourselves. Does that make sense?

I, personally, feel that any person coming here expecting hand-outs left right and centre aren't really the ones you want?

 

[Kat SP]

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

And let me explain what I meant. We DO have the power to change the shard. But the devs shouldn't listen to us. They should change it automatically to be as hard and unique as possible. WHY should they not listen to us? Because more than half the people playing Siege, according to polls, DON'T HAVE A FLIPPIN CLUE. If they give another poll offering to change our shard, nothing will come of it, because WE will be trammies and not let anything come of it. The devs should ignore us and do what needs to be done. Only when we drill out all the trammy crap out of all our brains should we be deciding what needs to be done.

[/ QUOTE ]

We are already taking up more dev time than they want to give us. Remember? We are 3% of the population and take up more than 3% of dev time.

I dont think they care to make our shard as unique as possible. They would rather make it disappear altogether at that point.

 

[Ginsu-SP]

Siege was not created as a "PvP" shard. In fact, if memory serves, at the time it
was created Trammel did not even exist on production shards yet. The only real
differences back then were NPCs wouldn't buy from you, and everything bought
from NPCs cost 3X more. It was created as a vet shard to make it more challenging
to pile up stuff. Siege has changed over the years, as Tram was created, and
production shard players have ventured out looking for a populated Felucca in
which to PvP... and here we are.

Siege is a lot more than a PvP shard. Characterizing it that way will only appeal
to a small group of people.... PvPrs who are not having fun where they are.
Siege needs to be promoted to all players who believe that risk = fun. That appeals
to RPrs, PvMrs, and PvPrs.

Risk = fun to RPrs because it gives you a chance for real conflict to build storylines
around... RP wars, chasing down murderers, vampires... etc. It's just a much
more interesting world to RP in if the environment is not controlled.

Risk = fun to PvMrs because PvM gets very repetitive and boring when there is
no chance of losing your gear, or good loot. Completing a spawn, or banking
a nice item on a shard where you could lose it at any time is much more exciting.

Now... without getting in to too much Dev-bashing.... we are definitely ignored.
If we are to increase the population on Siege... it is basically up to us. Yes... there
are changes to the system that would make Siege better. But those are suggestions
we need to make to EA. That is a totally different issue from "how do WE increase
population?". I do understand your frustration Mas. And I understand your point
that if the changes were made... possibly more people would come and stay.
However, I also understand and agree with Kat's point... that we have very little
control over what the Devs actually listen to, and put in to place. And response
time of the Devs is horrible... not to mention... they just seem to not understand
the mentality of Siege. (did I mention risk = fun?) And the changes they make are
just little stabs at appeasing us... rather than a concentrated effort to make
Siege as Siegey as possible.

So.... possibly the approach of trying to raise the population of Siege regardless
of changes is the way to go. Some sort of player-based campaign. But the shard
should not be pigeon-holed as a PvP shard. It needs to be characterized as what
it was created to be, and what it remains... a vet shard. Appealing to the largest
number of UO players who find that risk = fun is the way to go. IMO.

We have tried things like this before. We presented a letter from our shard that
was approved by everyone on Stratics once. I think Kelmo wrote that. Maybe
we should do that again... and make sure that we appeal to the largest group
of UO players that we can... emphasizing that risk = fun.

Cheers!

edit: P.S. One easy change that would make Siege harder in a good way would
be to somehow block all access to the Solen Queens so that translocation powder
could no longer be made. Discuss... hehe

 

[Kat SP]

AMEN! Minus that whole "PS" part!

 

[imported_Castor]

I have stopped trying to recruit production shard players here because we have enough ass hats and production shard rejects playing here already.

I mean seriously, how many more converted yew gate to luna gate fighters do we need on this shard?

 

[Guest]

NEW is so well known, and gives people such a good step up if they want it, I think that more than limited gold and starting items keeps people away. I think the major barriers to people leaving their "home" shard include:

<ul>[*]They don't know anyone on Siege, and few want to play alone
[*]Tedium of creating a new character from scratch (i.e. training)
[*] No house (and they aren't going to want to make another account to "experiment" on Siege nor drop their artifact-rare loaded house in a high density neighborhood on X regular shard)
[*]Misconceptions/lack of understanding about the Siege environment - fear of the unknown[/list]

It has been suggested increasing bank box storage across the board, which is probably the easiest thing for them to do from a development standpoint, but I would love to see something instead that specifically catered to "visitors" like a hotel system on Siege (or any shard for that matter) where an NPC innkeeper is just that - someone you can rent a "room" from (i.e. storage space), and pay from your bank, like stabling fees each week to stash some of your stuff (fixed number of storage units). Your room would be a "secure" place for you to go inside and look at your storage locker, and log out, but you would have no lockdowns, etc. If you don't have money to pay for the storage, then your stuff goes *poof* after a certain grace period or maybe it gets offered for sale via the innkeeper's context menu, to anyone who wants, in grab bag mystery lots, for a fixed price.

-Skylark

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I have stopped trying to recruit production shard players here because we have enough ass hats and production shard rejects playing here already.

I mean seriously, how many more converted yew gate to luna gate fighters do we need on this shard?

[/ QUOTE ]

Most standard shard people are afraid to lose their preciousssss pixels.
So forget them, we dont need them.
And then another good portion are as Castor says... asshats.
Do we really want them??? Sadly, enough of them have come here already, I agree with Castor.

 

[Kat SP]

<blockquote><hr>

I have stopped trying to recruit production shard players here because we have enough ass hats and production shard rejects playing here already.

I mean seriously, how many more converted yew gate to luna gate fighters do we need on this shard?

[/ QUOTE ]

Uhm... wow! Not ALL of us who have wandered over in the later years of Siege fit that description. *Sighs*

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

I have stopped trying to recruit production shard players here because we have enough ass hats and production shard rejects playing here already.

I mean seriously, how many more converted yew gate to luna gate fighters do we need on this shard?

[/ QUOTE ]

Uhm... wow! Not ALL of us who have wandered over in the later years of Siege fit that description. *Sighs*

[/ QUOTE ]


LOL I dont think you are one of the people he is referring to.

 

[Mandolin]

<blockquote><hr>

I mean seriously, how many more converted yew gate to luna gate fighters do we need on this shard?

[/ QUOTE ]

Heh... I can't count how many times somebody I've invited to play Siege has ICQ'd me and said something to the tune.. "Help! I'm dead.. can you help". To which I reply "Let me guess.. you went to Luna?". *chuckles* Trammy habits are hard habits to break.

Regardless of how many times you tell a new player to stay out of Luna they always gravitate there like its the Promised Land or something.

I speak to people from other shards daily about Siege. Their hesitation to try it is never equipment or gold. The most common reason I get from PvP's is: "Unbless the 7ae stuff first. I am not going to try and compete against that and I can't get either of them." Pretty valid.. almost like the PBD issue before it was fixed.

The second argument is less valid, but much more difficult to convince them otherwise about.. "Give me a second character slot and I'll come to Siege". I argue about the community, depending on each other, more interaction, thriving crafters, etc. Nope.. they're adiment about having a crafter on their account so they're self reliant.

So, I realize these are game mechanics and doesn't add much to the OP's ideas. But, I wanted to point out that most new players that are willing to brave out Siege could care less about gold or equipment. They're more than eager to seek out those on their own. Not that they're no less appreciative when I help them out. Its just not a priority on their list so doubt it would give people an incentive to try out Siege Perlilous. Just an observation and my 2 cents.

 

[imported_Castor]

i am not referring to you.

 

[Ginsu-SP]

While I agree with you that a lot of players that come over from production
shards come to PWN... I think a lot of that is because of how the shard is
perceived. If people think the shard is strictly a hardass PvP shard... then only
PvPrs will come, and a good portion of them will be asshats.

But... if we can show that the shard supports all kinds of play... we'll get more
of all types of players. And there will be asshat RPrs, and asshat PvMrs in that
bunch too.

Recruiting is kind of like picking apples out of a barrel... there will always be some
bad ones. All I am saying is... if we DO choose to do something to promote the
shard... let's do it well, and pick from the big barrel... not just the little barrel
of sour PvP apples. hehe

Cheers!

 

[Kat SP]

<blockquote><hr>

i am not referring to you.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't really think you were, but thank you for clarifying.

My point is, though, that there aren't just "asshats" and "Yew gate mentality" PvPer's that venture over. I have a guild full of quality people that proves that. Sure, we have had a couple that showed interest or even joined TnT, but those types don't last long. In fact, to my knowledge, they don't even play Siege anymore, which say's a lot to me. They didn't have what it takes to make it here.

I do realize we have some of those types on Siege, but they rarely venture too far from the guardzone of Luna. So let 'em have that cesspool.. Let them gravitate there. At least we know the spot to avoid, because as much as I hate to say it, trash tends to pile up with the rest of the trash.

 

[Guest]

I agree that the 7AE armor should be unblessed, but the problem is nothing like the PBD problem in creating a barrier for new players. New players will be able to buy them, all they cost is gold.

If they see that as a problem, they should stay off Siege, because there will be other things that will prevent them from competing with the old hardcore PvPers for months, perhaps years. They will have to collect enough gold to buy a +25 stat scroll, they will have to buy a number of +20 skill scrolls, and most importantly they will have to learn the game. If they are not prepared to invest that time, if they want to compete immediately against everybody, they should go and play roulette or throwing dice.

Kind regards

 

[Ginsu-SP]

<blockquote><hr>

The most common reason I get from PvP's is: "Unbless the 7ae stuff first. I am not going to try and compete against that and I can't get either of them." Pretty valid..

[/ QUOTE ]

This is SO not valid.

By the time someone is trained up enough to need 7ae items.. they could
definitely afford them.

Sammy Helm and Legs = 1 week of shearing sheep, or killing cows.

It is so easy to make gold on Siege it should be nerfed! lol

Since NPCs don't buy, and don't sell commodity items... there is a HUGE market
for those items that are easily collectible by anyone of any skill level. Production
shard players are generally shocked with glee at how much they can sell cloth
and plain leather for here.

Cheers!

 

[Mandolin]

Good points, Quira. Reading it from your perspective, I can see that I was being handed excuses vs. explanations from those who refused to give it a try.

Edit: Come to think about it.. I believe I was here 6 months before I got my hands on a Siege Uniform. *stands corrected*

 

[Kat SP]

<blockquote><hr>

The second argument is less valid, but much more difficult to convince them otherwise about.. "Give me a second character slot and I'll come to Siege". I argue about the community, depending on each other, more interaction, thriving crafters, etc. Nope.. they're adiment about having a crafter on their account so they're self reliant.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's kinda bogus too. Most UO players have at least 2 accounts they are already paying for.

 

[Mandolin]

<blockquote><hr>

That's kinda bogus too. Most UO players have at least 2 accounts they are already paying for.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. For some reason, when you ask somebody to "try" Siege Perilous they always seem to interpret it as "sell the farm and move" to Siege. *shrugs*

I think the best concentrated effort thus far has been Yasou's Waka/Yama events.. especially the first one. I still see a few of them running around from time to time.

Story Night and Mem's tournament are another example.. the past few weeks I've seen all kinds of new players visiting from other shards. Quite a few UOR listeners have come over for these events and several are now playing Siege full time.

If we can keep up the current roll of frequent events that we got going and just promote them to the other shards I think we'll see a steady flow of new potential new Siegelets. I know first hand that all it takes is one night to see the Siege community gathered in one place to get hooked cause they're able to meet people from all guilds, etc. in one spot at one time instead of striking out on their own to meet people.

Shard Events would be the suggestion I'd offer to the list.

 

[Guest]

*DONATION*

I don't think that's the way to go. Alot do start here but quit when ready to PvP.

I think the main problem is, it's to hard to replace your items when you need alot upper gear to PvP

It's not fun when you have to use 80% of your playtime to gathering items or money for them. Players who want to PvP don't want to time for new gear, they just want to find a vendor and pay max 10k for a new suit and weapon/regs.

A newbie can fast make 50k, I had seen several newbies place a 18x18 spot their first week on Siege just from selling resourcees, start money is not the problem.

Remove AoS mods on Siege or cap them so GM armor again are useless for PvP.

If we can get the PvP'ers back, there wukk again be need for crafters and PvM's to sell them items and the shard will grow.

 

[Brickman]

<blockquote><hr>

I, throughout my years on siege, have noticed that we do infact get ignored somewhat by the dev team.
We are namely being ignored because our numbers are extremely low compared to the vast number of "production" shards...

We have asked them to change siege to encourage people on "production" shards to want to come to siege, and I feel the changes havn't been the best thing for siege.

What I propose we do is use our OWN methods of encouraging people to want to come to siege!

I am pondering some idea's, so you may have to bare with me...

I think we should do one of the following two idea's:

*DONATION*
One of the reasons people tend to NOT come to siege is for one very simple reason... they don't wish to start over, and who blames them for that?

I think if I advertised in game, on other forums, and had you guys spread the word about... I could set up a donation box and allow people coming over from other shards the opportunity to collect 50k starting money...

I think the small insentive that people wouldn't be starting out with NOTHING would draw a larger crowd over here, and ROT would still weave out most of the UBAR WARIORZ!!1...

If the donations where high enough I could possibly have them start with 100k...

*cons* There is a slight chance that people would double dip, and collect more gold then they rightly deserve... but I say let them, if they feel they need more gold to come here... then let them here anyhow, I see more profit having them come here then leaving siege as a dull "empty" shard...


*Lottery*
This idea is very similar to that of the Donation idea, but with a small twist... it would encourage people to donate gold, and it would encourage people to come to siege from other shards...

What would happen is, I would set up a locked down box at a house close to a gate (friends house)... and post when the numbers (5 numbers, 1-30 (Make it easier for one winner to be announced)) will be announced...

Basically you would buy a lottery ticket for 100k (price may vary depending on how interesting people feel this is) and you would post the name of your character buying the ticket...

After you post, you are free to place a book with your name on it, and the 5 numbers (1-30) in the locked down box...

The winner (or closest one) would recieve half of the pot every week (I'd announce the pot before the numbers are revealed)...

If there is a tie the pot would be split...

The remaining half of the pot (that didn't go to the winner) would be put into the DONATION Idea (see above) and basically would be used to start people coming to siege with more insentive to come here...


The benifit of having more people on siege, would be that there would be more people to say things need to change on siege... there would be more people to talk to, more people to fight with, more people out farming, more people crafting... ect...

I see this being very benificial as a merchant of siege...

These are my ideas... Now tell me what you think...?
*smiles*

[/ QUOTE ]Yada yada yada

Done that, done that and DONE THAT! Honestly, whats it going to take to convince you marketing specialists? People have spent ton's of their r/l time putting together and maintaining whole guilds for the soul purpose of protecting and financing NEW players to siege with little or no long term effect towards the shards population!

The game is simply old, the graghics are way out dated. UO's at it's end, even on prodo shards, the lack of customers/players is showing on both sides Fel and Tram side. Hell some of the prodo shards are even less populated then Siege!

I suppose it's up to you. Spend your money and long for an era never to return! Or come to grips with it and move on to the next best thing! Personally I'd rather adapt to a game like WoW then to spend money on a online game that only supports farming with limited player interation being available for short spurts in the evening and weekends. But to each his own I say

BTW I did enjoy your comic relief:

<blockquote><hr>

We are namely being ignored because our numbers are extremely low compared to the vast number of "production" shards

[/ QUOTE ]

LMAO VAST! I honstly got a chuckle out of VAST heheheh! Thats when you know you have been on siege to long a dozen becomes VAST and thirty people on a shard is a massive online game

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I have stopped trying to recruit production shard players here because we have enough ass hats and production shard rejects playing here already.

I mean seriously, how many more converted yew gate to luna gate fighters do we need on this shard?

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with you here, we need new blood directe from other games PvP shards, we need to let newbies choose Siege, just like other game gives new players the choice between PvP and non PvP shards.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>


I think the best concentrated effort thus far has been Yasou's Waka/Yama events.. especially the first one. I still see a few of them running around from time to time.


[/ QUOTE ]

This sounds like fun to try again... If the instructions are good and the time is clear, we can pick them up where the new players spawn, give them GM weapons and armor and gate them to the battlefield. Perhaps one populated with some low spawn and a shrine close by.

If all visitors know which skills to pick, and with the proper weapons it should be fun. We can set up a house near the battlefield with dye tubs so they can pick sides. Which skills should they pick? Swords and healing? Then we give them all a cleaver and 50 bandages.

Can we prevent PKs from ploughing through the visitors, thus forcing a defense force to attack them and it becoming a battle of the leet? It should remain fun for the visitors too.

Kind regards

 

[Mandolin]

<blockquote><hr>

Can we prevent PKs from ploughing through the visitors, thus forcing a defense force to attack them and it becoming a battle of the leet? It should remain fun for the visitors too.

[/ QUOTE ]

This wasn't an issue during the first Waka/Yama event. The newbs were actually pushing back the pk's at couple points in the battles due to their numbers. And regardless how many times they died, they all claimed to be having the time of their lives.

 

[Ginsu-SP]

Wanna talk chuckles!!? This cracked me up.

<blockquote><hr>

Personally I'd rather adapt to a game like WoW then to spend money on a online game that only supports farming with limited player interation being available for short spurts in the evening and weekends.

[/ QUOTE ]

WoW limits player interaction MUCH more than UO does. You can't even talk to
your opponents. There is no housing to hold guild activities... RP is dead... it's
just a big leveling chatroom with cool graphics. I like WoW... but not for interaction.
The battlegrounds are fun. In UO you can do almost anything you can imagine.
Only unimaginative people need to be spoonfed a game. WoW is the gamer's teat
presently. So go suck it.

Cheers!

 

[Masumatek]

No community effort is going to convince any significant amount of players to come on over here. Sure you may snag a few, but not enough. The community here is at an all time low, weaker than ever. However, even if it was as strong as in the past, not much would change. People have told us the reasons they don't come to Siege. You, me, no one is going to convince the numbers we would like to come over by a community effort. Non-Siege players want physical changes to the gameplay before they come. Aside from things that can not be helped, such as "my ping is way too low on Siege" the main reasons people do not come to Siege were the ones I listed. They either know jack about Siege...all their info is wrong. Advertising by us and the devs would help this. They don't want to "start all over" making a new char training for months. Greatly increased skill gaining would solve this. And/Or they don't want to play a half-assed half-trammy shard that still has blessed items. If they want insurance, they will stay on their own shard. They don't feel the need to come to a shard to have half-insurance. This could be solved by removing ALL blessed items on Siege, making it more hard and unique, as it should be. Though, this will NEVER happen. Our population will NOT increase again to the numbers it should. Why? For some odd reason, most people enjoy the slow gains. They enjoy ROT. They want it to take months. They don't want it to be done quickly. At leasts that's what I got from almost all the responses when I brought it up in game or on the boards. Second, people don't want to have less blessed items. Only half our shard wants the 7ae gear to go away. Most of our shard wants the "one blessed" INSURANCE item. I find it extremely funny that i've seen MANY more trammy shard players beg the devs to remove ALL blessings and insurance, at least from Fel, well here Siege is perfectly happy being half-assed. You guys want a large population? Then start asking for the physical changes necessary to achieve that goal. No amount of community effort will draw a large number of players.

 

[Ginsu-SP]

All the blessed stuff needs to go.... regardless of polls. This is Siege... they need
to bring it back to the spirit that it was created in. It gets complicated when you
start talking about artifacts... but they just need to go on and do it and let it
level out however it does.

The problem is that they keep trying to make Siege work with the new items. It
would work a lot better without artifacts here... but apparently special coding
is out of the question.

So I would be in favor of unblessing everything, boarding up DOOM, burying the
Solen hives (yes Kat, translocation powder is evil), stopping all paragon drops,
and any other source of uncrafted arties.

I know what you are saying Mas, but we should always have some info in front
of the production shard players that correctly explains our shard for those who
may become interested. And it can't say "You'd love Siege if they ever got it fixed!".

Cheers!

 

[Guest]

I'm so new to siege that i'm still in [NEW], but I'm a vet player from atlantic. So, being so new, I figure'd it might be helpful to share my new impressions of siege.

Positive side:
1. plenty of housing space
2. mature, helpful community
3. plenty of pvp
4. prices are much more reasonable here
5. no insurance = thieving possible and dieing a lot doesn't cost much
6. you can actually pvp in player crafted armor here because not everyone is decked out in doom artifacts so pvp is less "item vs. item" based. One blessed weapon, the bunny ears, and some legs are no big deal.
7. [NEW] is great! Please keep donating your unneeded 110's and 115's and weapons/armor there. It's very helpful when you are beginning here.
8. everyplace is Fel.

Negative side:
1. ROT is way too slow. 5 months seems to be about how long it will take for me to get my character finished, and i'm so much meat-shield until then to the vets on this shard.
2. one char slot only means I have to specialize. However, on other shards, I find myself getting bored with one character and want to hunt as an archer one day, do PvP the next day, go mining another day, etc. I don't want to always and only be a fencer.
3. monsters spawn at trammel speed here. One of the best things about hunting on Atlantic/fel is that monsters insta-spawn = less boredom.
4. tamers are big-time overpowered here. On Atlantic, you see a few tamers in pvp, but the power of their pets is balanced by other players items. Here, it seems, 1/3 of the pvp-ers are tamers since one munch from a cu-sidhe brings low the most powerful warrior because he is wearing crappy armor.

I have no suggestions, just newbie observations.

 

[Yasou Wakayama]

<blockquote><hr>

I think the best concentrated effort thus far has been Yasou's Waka/Yama events.. especially the first one.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was just trying to get more people here to fight ...

 

[Masumatek]

Thank you for your observations.

"1. ROT is way too slow. 5 months seems to be about how long it will take for me to get my character finished, and i'm so much meat-shield until then to the vets on this shard."
---Exactly. This IS the # 1 reason why we don't have an overflowing population. Skill training needs to be sped up tremendously.

"4. tamers are big-time overpowered here. On Atlantic, you see a few tamers in pvp, but the power of their pets is balanced by other players items. Here, it seems, 1/3 of the pvp-ers are tamers since one munch from a cu-sidhe brings low the most powerful warrior because he is wearing crappy armor."
---Yup. Drawing in players by making skill gains faster and ridding the world of blessed items will increase our population. To maintain it, the devs need to balance Siege based on how Siege is, not how production shards are. And they need to keep the trammy crap off Siege.

"2. one char slot only means I have to specialize. However, on other shards, I find myself getting bored with one character and want to hunt as an archer one day, do PvP the next day, go mining another day, etc. I don't want to always and only be a fencer."
---This one I disagree on. There should be a one char limit. It makes you less self-reliant and more reliant on the community. SoulStones were a horrible addition to Siege, destroying the reason for having that one char limit. They need to be wiped from the server.

*IF skill gains are increased to a point where in less than 3 weeks, a casual player can have an entire, fully trained character, and in a few days or less one fully trained skill, that one char limit will not be a huge deal if you like to try different templates out instead of sticking to one. Want a change? Just spend a few days training!

 

[Ginsu-SP]

I agree with everything you're saying Mas.

I just don't think we should stop trying to find ways to bring new players here
till it's perfect.

If any DEVs are reading this... please make Siege like it should be; totally unblessed,
and shut down artifacts. The magic of Siege was it's difficulty, and the player
economy. Blessings, and artifacts have killed that spirit. Decreasing training time
would also be good. Players on Siege hardly do anything until they are "finished".
So decreasing training time would make it more fun for everyone sooner.

Cheers!

 

[Guest]

As a person considering moving Siege, speeding up ROT would make me reconsider. My character was created back in the day when GM armor and weapons WERE the l33t items. Sure, I hate the thought of starting from scratch again. If I wanted to jump right into some maxed out Killa there are tons of games that put you right there. Let the guys that just have to go straight to powerhouse stay where they are. I have no problem taking 5 months to train up (heck my current character took at least that long way back when). I say keep the rot where it is and the RoXXor Dewds where they are.

Stuff or money doesn't keep me away from Siege. I used to enjoy PvPing in the old days but don't anymore. I don't have the 60 mil it takes to buy the items needed PvP on my current server and I refuse to give my money to the cheating scripters selling most of the things on Ebay. Many of my runs to Fel these days are when I want to get killed (in my profession you sometimes seek ooOOoo). Not only do I not have the gear to PvP, I don't cheat. Too many of the Powerhouse Guilds on Sonoma cheat. Their own screenshots have proven it. I won't be moving to Siege either until Punkbuster goes through. If Seige is the non-Punkbuster shard I will not move. Did I mention that I hate the weak willed weanies that cheat? You're afraid of getting killed on Sonoma? Why? Ya have to cheat so that you can be 'better' than everyone else. Seek counseling for your self esteem issues. It's a game!
As much as I disdain the item based game UO has became, I despise cheaters more.

My two sons play on Sonoma, that is a big thing holding me back. Of course, I can still keep my current toon there so that I can run with them when I want.

So, don't mess with ROT and get Punkbuster. Everything else is not a concern for me. Maybe I'll come and annoy you guys. I will miss mocking those L33T Gods on Sonoma, but I'm certain there are those on Siege in dire need of some mocking.

Maddwg
Raconteur of Sonoma

 

[Masumatek]

ROT doesn't at all keep "leet dudes" off the server. I'de like someone to explain how it does. Unless by "Leet dudes" you mean PvPers. Yes ROT keeps a helluva lot of PvPers off the server. RPers and farmers may be perfectly content with being able to play their game with low-end chars that don't need to be fully trained. The PvPers on other shards enjoy what?...PvP. They've made their chars already. What they don't want to do is spend months and months and months training chars all over, being vet players and players that enjoy PvP, just to get into the game. Despite it being "so much more," (and it is...), Siege is foremost a PvP shard. Though the Shard does/would attract other types of players, PvPers is what it attracts the most....and they want to play the game, not train. It's also a vet shard. Vets have already gone through training countless skills. Why make them spend repetitive months doing the same thing? Boring, no? Take examples from other PvP games. ShadowBane is a PvP game. Knowing your stuff you can train your char in a day. DF will be a PvP game. You can train your char quickly there too. There's obviously reasoning why these other PvP games don't/won't force you to spend a long time training. Siege should be the same way.

 

[Ginsu-SP]

<blockquote><hr>

Take examples from other PvP games. ShadowBane is a PvP game. Knowing your stuff you can train your char in a day. DF will be a PvP game. You can train your char quickly there too. There's obviously reasoning why these other PvP games don't/won't force you to spend a long time training. Siege should be the same way.

[/ QUOTE ]
WoW PvP is also very quick to get into. You can be competitive in the first bracket
in a couple of days.

On Siege I think tripling the daily gain cap would make it plenty fast.

Cheers!

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Take examples from other PvP games. ShadowBane is a PvP game. Knowing your stuff you can train your char in a day. DF will be a PvP game. You can train your char quickly there too. There's obviously reasoning why these other PvP games don't/won't force you to spend a long time training. Siege should be the same way.

[/ QUOTE ]

But Ultima Online and Siege are not ALL about PvP.

I wouldnt mind seeing the ROT cap increased slightly, but not much.

 

[Guest]

Well, ROT limits me to 2.1 gains per day - total, across all skills from 80+.

Thus, each skill that I want to 120 will take a minimum of ~20 days - assuming that I get all my ROT gains - which at the highest levels requires 5.25 hours of play per day. I'm addicted, but not generally that insane, so it'll probably take me more like 1 month per skill.

The only way to go faster than that is to buy an account on ebay

The simplest solution is to allow 2.1 ROT gains for each skill per day. Thus if i'm in ROT, I can gain 2.1 hiding + 2.1 fencing + 2.1 ninja each day. It'll then take me 4-6 weeks to complete a character - maybe more if I get bored.

just a thought - let the flames begin.

 

[Brickman]

<blockquote><hr>

Wanna talk chuckles!!? This cracked me up.

<blockquote><hr>

Personally I'd rather adapt to a game like WoW then to spend money on a online game that only supports farming with limited player interation being available for short spurts in the evening and weekends.

[/ QUOTE ]

WoW limits player interaction MUCH more than UO does. You can't even talk to
your opponents. There is no housing to hold guild activities... RP is dead... it's
just a big leveling chatroom with cool graphics. I like WoW... but not for interaction.
The battlegrounds are fun. In UO you can do almost anything you can imagine.
Only unimaginative people need to be spoonfed a game. WoW is the gamer's teat
presently. So go suck it.

Cheers!

[/ QUOTE ]Um

You can do everything except play with other people

Otherwise we wouldn't be post to this thread now would we? Why pay to stand around wondering how to convince smarter more demanding people to play a worn out slightly popular game? Hell why even waste your time? Not like every trick in the book hasn't been tried over the last seven or so years since the big exit of siege founders. The majority of the players that made up the good ol days on Siege, well UO as a whole will not be returning because game mechanics changed to their dislike and that will never be reversed. The other players your trying and have tried to recruit into the shard LIKE their atari graghics and their lil trammy world of storage trunks! Their not coming, if they were they would be here, (and not from lack of trying either) and we wouldnt be reading this rerun!

As far as no communications between factions, I think it's the best part of WoW design! I never liked sitting around listning to a bunch of tards explaining how they were going to own this and own that , while sitting in mom or dads house owning NOTHING

But keep up the good fight! At least it gives you something to do other then WAIT for PEOPLE to log on

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

SoulStones were a horrible addition to Siege

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, even though I now have several of them. Before soulstones, I spent a lot of time asking other people to make me tools and things to use in my own crafts, and vice versa. I also remember when people regularly SOLD pre-poisoned weapons, because "casual" poisoners liked the advantage, but few wanted to sink 80 - 100 skill points into being able to apply a high level poison to their weapon. Now it seems like every PvPer has poisoning on a stone. Even cooking...2 years ago, you would have been hard pressed to find 6 people on Siege with the skill at GM level, and now with soulstones, and the egg/smoke bombs, and ML magic fruit, seems like half the shard has it on a soulstone along with every other skill imaginable.

As for RoT...I think everyone agrees it beats the tedium of the skill gain on regular shards any day, but it does seem to be TOO restrictive. Although it is a good concept, I think it should be revisited both in the timers, and the caps. People who can only play a half hour a day are NEVER going to be able to get their RoT gains like the power gamers. While I think people should have some significant time investment to grow with their characters, it shouldn't be sufficient to deter them from playing or kill their fun.

-Skylark

 

[Ginsu-SP]

<blockquote><hr>

But Ultima Online and Siege are not ALL about PvP.

I wouldnt mind seeing the ROT cap increased slightly, but not much.

[/ QUOTE ]

I definitely agree that UO is not all about PvP... however, what do you think is
gained by making players take so long to train up? In the past it's been kind of a
"We all had to do it... they should have to." but... if that is the main reason
players don't want to try Siege, what have we gained?

We definitely have a population problem, we have had it a long time. Maybe we
need to change some of the ways we think about things.

Cheers!