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Apparently Ultima Online is a dead game yet...

Pawain

I Hate Skilling
Governor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I can assure you nobody is PVPing or spawning.. Atleast not during any peak hours. I've checked for almost a week straight. You're just babbling nonsense to make you sound correct. In reality i think your 10 players is pretty accurate of total players and 4 of them are afk at luna bank 24/7.

Edited to fix large run-on sentence.
I really dont care about your opinion. If you spend a few minutes in Gen chat you will hear them in about an hour.

Since you are the authority on the amount of players on LS, I will let you live in your fantasy world.

Do you play UO or just like to post falsehoods here? I guess my guildies don't exist either. I guess the other regulars that play daily are my imagination.

Good bye. Ill be having fun in UO on LS all by myself I guess.
 

Pawain

I Hate Skilling
Governor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I can assure you nobody is PVPing or spawning.. Atleast not during any peak hours. I've checked for almost a week straight. You're just babbling nonsense to make you sound correct. In reality i think your 10 players is pretty accurate of total players and 4 of them are afk at luna bank 24/7.

Edited to fix large run-on sentence.
Ok. Dont know why I'm bothering to do this. I could be training a pet.

Here is our guild roster showing who was on today. 4 pages of who was last on yesterday.


upload_2018-1-18_18-8-22.png
 

Stussywear

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Ok. Dont know why I'm bothering to do this. I could be training a pet.

Here is our guild roster showing who was on today. 4 pages of who was last on yesterday.


View attachment 76486
FYI, me and 2 players in my guild, (1 has 2 accounts) can show you just as many active players on any server you like. It's not an opinion if I experience it first hand. When im on next maybe ill take screenshots to show you how inactive your server really is. Just because you and 2 guidles are hidden fighting cu's doesnt make the server populated.
 

Lore

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
Even Atlantic is dead by my standards. Too few people with too many accounts make it look not dead with all the houses. I ran both LS and Atlantic Tram PVM spots I love and didn't see a soul. It's peak gaming hours EST US. It's all subjective.
 

Pawain

I Hate Skilling
Governor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Ill be sure to find you soon since youre so active.
You cane to visit us and stayed 5 minutes. There were 5 different people talking in chat when you arrived. But you quickly shut down chat when you started being a jackass. Notice how everybody quit talking.

upload_2018-1-18_21-17-37.png

You judge a shard by looking at Luna bank I see. Theres 4 of us in Yamitsu Mines. 4 at Navrey and 2 at the mage.

And this many from my guild on. None of those are repeat accounts. You did not find them because they are spread out playing.

upload_2018-1-18_21-19-51.png

Now the PvP talk has started. But we dont have PvP so maybe they talking to Medusa.

upload_2018-1-18_21-58-51.png
 
Last edited:

Stussywear

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
You cane to visit us and stayed 5 minutes. There were 5 different people talking in chat when you arrived. But you quickly shut down chat when you started being a jackass. Notice how everybody quit talking.

View attachment 76505

You judge a shard by looking at Luna bank I see. Theres 4 of us in Yamitsu Mines. 4 at Navrey and 2 at the mage.

And this many from my guild on. None of those are repeat accounts. You did not find them because they are spread out playing.

View attachment 76506

Now the PvP talk has started. But we dont have PvP so maybe they talking to Medusa.

View attachment 76508
I didnt leave after 5 minutes, I stopped talking after 5 minutes. I counted a total of 9 players actively talking in chat and or at luna. This was spaced through 18 minutes. I ran yew gate, then Fire dungeon, to Despise, to Terra Keep, Destard, then Deceit. Then I ran ice dungeon to ice west, ran back out and checked cotd, through marble. Checked Oasis and Damwin. Checked Papua through khaldun. Nobody. Not a single soul. So maybe there are a few more players in trammel, but while I was there during peak hours, there wasnt a soul in Felucca for the 18-20 minutes I was running around. Either way, lets say 15 people total. That's still a grossly underwhelming number.
 

omukai

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
What killed UO's population was not Trammel or AoS or whatever "internal" reason there may be.
People had played the game for years, got bored, and first DAoC, then WoW came out. Both fresh, interesting experiences.
If you wanted to return to UO for a month or three, why bother subscribing if there's lots of freeshards out? And without the neon colors and ridiculous features of older versions?
There was also never a real update for the graphics, and let's face it, UO did not age well.

They could just fire up an RunUO and mod it. Doesn't take so much time to set up such a T2A or Ren shard, and who would even know it's RunUO? They could remove all the traces perfectly.

The reason they don't do it is they don't want to do it. Not impossibility or financial reasons.
 

Lore

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
Gotta admit... the first reason I left UO was all my friends kept telling me about WoW and the druid was just an interesting thing to me. Be cool if UO made a shapeshifter. I know we have spells, but not really the same as having a form that has utility. Make a shape that is as strong as a tank and weak as a damage dealer as a Greater Dragon pre-taming patch.
 

calibek

Journeyman
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I would love to see a classic server come out but, honestly, we have better chances of hitting the lottery for $100 million. Sorry but there is just to much baggage in this game.

First problem is the fact that it is owned by EA. EA most likely isn't going to put out the money with no guarantee of an ROI.

Second is, as said before, which is everyone's favorite era? Personally there are things I like about each and every era but a lot I don't. For instance I LOVE the champ spawns but think powerscrolls were the worst addition. I love chivalry and necromancy but hate how they made the game WAY more item based and RNG on top of it with AoS. There are pros and cons to all of them and quite frankly everything everyone likes about it is nostalgia.

Third the graphics are crap. Sorry but the majority of people who played this game have moved on and, while to some graphics aren't the end all be all, they are taken into consideration. The community just couldn't move on to allow for better graphics and insisted they kept 2D and honestly the graphics are one thing that hold the game back.

Fourth is all the bugs that were present. They can't fix some that have been around for years NOW and somehow you expect them to bring out a classic server and have all the issues fixed?

As has been said the game has very few subs as is and the opening of a classic server most likely isn't going to bring enough people back to increase the revenue for the amount of people to bring on for this venture. EA is a company, and a greedy one at that so unless there was some guarantee and revitalization plan in place the chances of them even funding this would be incredibly slim. And to top it all of if they, through some miracle, did and it failed they would most likely close UO altogether to end the hemmoraging.
 

celticus

Crazed Zealot
UNLEASHED
I'm not sure many people took a look at the Dark Age of Camelot producer letter from December when I posted a link to it recently. (Dark Age of Camelot) However, buried at the very end of that letter is the following information:

And that finally leads us to the potential of an alternative ruleset server. As things stand now, there are two major obstacles preventing the launch of one in the near term (as in this next year). The first is that everyone seems to have a different view of what the perfect alternative server ruleset would include. We knew this going in, and feel confident we can deliver a ruleset that would be both highly engaging and appealing to a wide swath of former and new players alike.

That being said - as we have previously stated, we would never create an alternative ruleset server unless we were confident in the Ywain server’s population and health. This is the second and much more challenging obstacle. The Endless Conquest is going to be a huge step in overcoming it. Again - we are thrilled to finally announce and talk about our plans. 2018 is going to be an excellent year for Dark Age of Camelot!

So....does this mean that there is a slim possibility that Broadsword might follow the same path for UO, i.e., pin down what an "alternative ruleset server" would look like and then implement it if Endless Journey brings back a hefty number of old players and attracts a bunch of new ones?
I think it would be pointless to hope for a "legacy server" or legacy ruleset F2P, since specifically Messana in a public interview pointed reasons for no legacy server, among which diff players would like diff eras, that the game has evolved past the past eras in accordance with player's prompting, and lack of agreement among players. BUT we can all be surprised when the F2P comes out..Very slim chance of legacy..Fo people that like leagacy and Feluca rulesets, there is already a server, and it has been there for long time. But alternate? Hmm, wonder what specifically..Doubt that the F2P would be obligatory PVP or Fel ruleset, but may have a Tram and Fel parts, just like most production shards, but with the F2P restrictions.
 

McValdemar

Visitor
Just logged in the game since afew years, after spending in the game probably around 5 years since T2A.
Just for the sake of discussing, I agree with people asking for a classic shard/whatever you wanna call it, with no char transfer.
I understamd that many things we gained since UO:R are not only crap. There are quite few things that would severely be missed but, the way it is now is just the natural "end" of something that mostly relies of few townsands of people that don't want to let it go and that, without new things, they would have let it go yeatrs ago.
But let me tell that, possibly as an extrenal guy that jumped again in for few months (i opted for the three months subscription) I wandered around and this world full of crazyily colored stuff, messy ****loads of skills/properties, completely uber item based is lackign what UO was always (and still is) almost unque: ROLES.
I mean, UO was beautiful because everyone of us could play a role AND make it worth for the community.
People where relying on a good smith, crafting made sense, resource gathering was needed, trading through vendors made sense, high quality items used to be damaged with time, resources spent, etc...
Insurances, fortifying, LRC to almost 99%, crazyily color everything, tens of properties on every piece of ****, etc... killed the core around which the game was built.
Again, I understand why this happened, I understand why people expain that if we forget about years of evolution this would led UO to be boring but this can also bring back balance.
Can bring back a world where, realistically, you can go from ZERO to be competitive and have fun with the "olders", in two months.
This will take away tons of empty, inconsisten expansions, etc... and would probably give back something where the core game design works again.
Just take those those as 2 cents of a returning player that reactivated the account today, will probably spend the next three months around, but probably after that will move out, maybe trying a T2A unofficial shard.
Hope to cross your path in Europa. :)
 

ShriNayne

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Awards
5
Welcome home! Come to the West Brit bank meet on Europa 6-7 pm uk time for help and advice! All are welcome! :D
 

TB Cookie [W]

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Just logged in the game since afew years, after spending in the game probably around 5 years since T2A.
Just for the sake of discussing, I agree with people asking for a classic shard/whatever you wanna call it, with no char transfer.
I understamd that many things we gained since UO:R are not only crap. There are quite few things that would severely be missed but, the way it is now is just the natural "end" of something that mostly relies of few townsands of people that don't want to let it go and that, without new things, they would have let it go yeatrs ago.
But let me tell that, possibly as an extrenal guy that jumped again in for few months (i opted for the three months subscription) I wandered around and this world full of crazyily colored stuff, messy ****loads of skills/properties, completely uber item based is lackign what UO was always (and still is) almost unque: ROLES.
I mean, UO was beautiful because everyone of us could play a role AND make it worth for the community.
People where relying on a good smith, crafting made sense, resource gathering was needed, trading through vendors made sense, high quality items used to be damaged with time, resources spent, etc...
Insurances, fortifying, LRC to almost 99%, crazyily color everything, tens of properties on every piece of ****, etc... killed the core around which the game was built.
Again, I understand why this happened, I understand why people expain that if we forget about years of evolution this would led UO to be boring but this can also bring back balance.
Can bring back a world where, realistically, you can go from ZERO to be competitive and have fun with the "olders", in two months.
This will take away tons of empty, inconsisten expansions, etc... and would probably give back something where the core game design works again.
Just take those those as 2 cents of a returning player that reactivated the account today, will probably spend the next three months around, but probably after that will move out, maybe trying a T2A unofficial shard.
Hope to cross your path in Europa. :)

Siege is a good option for the best UO experience currently, it has balance and roles, it has the full land-masses and a good Feluccan ruleset + the economy is not destroyed.
It could use a few more players to make it really take off, then it could potentially be the best shard.

Europa is also a really good option I believe. It is active all round, with good Spawning, RP, PVM, Crafting and PvP scenes.

I understand a lot of where you are coming from, if you want a guild on Europa, look for Wraiths [W] - ask for Teclo and say I mentioned us - we are invite only, but I look for people who see the game like I do. (It helps with teamwork, maturity, vision and cohesion of the guild). It also helps us to have newer players, as it gives us something to do!
We are active across all aspects of the game, our Discord, UOAM and Alliance lists are usually active, most active in the evenings.
We probably have more old school players than any other guild, a lot of us would get what you just said.
Although none of your above post can be the case anymore, we are still enjoying most aspects of the game, and with luck, could extend that to you, so it doesn't turn out to be just a 3 months visit for you.
 

McValdemar

Visitor
First of all, thanks gents for the welcome. Allow me few days of setting up my home (I will live next to the SnowMan, at the northern end of Dagger Island if you want to pass by) and do some minor quests and I will be ready.
I will be more than happy to see I can enjoy the game again, even if in a different way.
See you on the reads arounds.
fare thee well!
 

Fizzleton

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I played from 1999 on, and have therefore impressions of all "UO's" that were out there. A classic shard would be as dead as anything in UO, since the playerbase has shrinked to a point where splitting up anything will not lead to "vibrant communities". Yes, there would be a short peak in players, but this would vanish soon. Those who do not pvp will not show up there, don't forget that when tram was introduced fel was empty soon after. Why should any Tram-style player should join a classic shard? This will not happen. A lot of the old players will not return, classic shard up or not; new players will not join, why should they? - look alone at the graphics. No, just let it go. Enjoy what is still there, that's it.
 

Spartan

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
Also, any classic shard will be part of the subscription fees we pay. Why play somewhere we have to pay when there are plenty of FS with the same ruleset and more out there.
 

Quickblade

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I am sure this new legacy will be a success , and bring alot of the freesharders to OSI, I have never experienced a shard creation I'm excited! I hope they reinforce the anti-cheats and scripts for Legacy shard, maybe open doors for the prodo shards , yes gear and cheats has been out of control, we cant do much against gear , but we still can against cheats
 

Fridgster

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I am sure this new legacy will be a success , and bring alot of the freesharders to OSI, I have never experienced a shard creation I'm excited! I hope they reinforce the anti-cheats and scripts for Legacy shard, maybe open doors for the prodo shards , yes gear and cheats has been out of control, we cant do much against gear , but we still can against cheats
With no ability to attack blues I see pvp being nonexistent.
 

Keven2002

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
I am sure this new legacy will be a success , and bring alot of the freesharders to OSI, I have never experienced a shard creation I'm excited! I hope they reinforce the anti-cheats and scripts for Legacy shard, maybe open doors for the prodo shards , yes gear and cheats has been out of control, we cant do much against gear , but we still can against cheats
Did you not hear Messana acknowledge the cheating and basically brush it off?? Doesn't sound like there will be much in place to combat the cheating or scripting in PvP. I used to love PvP back in the day but once people started speed hacking and using scripts I completely lost interest. If they aren't going to take a hardline on cheating then I have no desire to PvP... especially from scratch losing all my stuff to a cheater. I have no reason to believe they will take that hard line though when Messana couldn't even say what programs we could use on the live stream... leads me to believe they won't be running any kind of anti-cheats
 

Goldberg-Chessy

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I see your point and agree that the ship has sailed for UO, but it's not impossible and it's not necessarily a waste of resources. I'd play a UO that didn't have item properties. I miss going lich slaying with a silver weapon in my full valorite GM crafted plate. I'm not going to speak for "most people" though.
Isn't a silver weapon technically a weapon with a property?
Hrmmm...
 

Goldberg-Chessy

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
They had names. Silver sword of vanquishing. Undead slayer with max damage increase. 50% or so.
I know.
My favorite oldschool hunting spot was Terra Keep.
Looted many a nice silver power/vanq off the warriors while fighting off pk’s :thumbup:
 

dvv

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
UNLEASHED
I feel like the game needs to be recoded from the ground up first before considering some sort of “classic” shard. In reading the book Braving Brittania, there was some insight into how the game was coded. It said they didn’t expect it to last very long and the codebase reflected that. Not to mention the fact that coding has gotten so much more refined and intelligent over the years. The game just desperately needs to be recoded imo. EA needs to green light that and I really get the feeling EA doesn’t really care much for UO.
 

Captn Norrington

Stratics Forum Moderator
Moderator
Professional
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Campaign Supporter
I feel like the game needs to be recoded from the ground up first before considering some sort of “classic” shard. In reading the book Braving Brittania, there was some insight into how the game was coded. It said they didn’t expect it to last very long and the codebase reflected that. Not to mention the fact that coding has gotten so much more refined and intelligent over the years. The game just desperately needs to be recoded imo. EA needs to green light that and I really get the feeling EA doesn’t really care much for UO.
Most of the popular free shards have been built from the ground up with modern code, and you’re right, everything runs way more smoothly on them. It’s much easier for the devs too because they can tweak things without worrying about unstable broken old code that could be destroyed by it. UO should never have made the EC, they should have just recreated CC with modern code and all the quality of life upgrades EC has, then re-released it as a mandatory upgrade for everyone.
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Campaign Supporter
Shoulda, coulda, woulda, didn't... the fact is we are stuck with what we have because EA doesn't get it and BS doesn't care... their one and only concern is in their other game... which I could care less about... They have pretty much stated that.

Now they put Mesanna in charge of UO and said she will be UO's last producer... if that tells you anything at all...

So either we like it or we leave it or we just try to make the most of it... We can wish all we like but chances of EA allowing anyone to purchase UO and make real changes are slim to none. It's my opinion that they wish everyone would just forget about UO and let it go into a graveyard of game retirement... but there are too many who cling to it no matter how bad it gets like dingleberries on an...

Think that sums it up.

And yes free servers have slightly better code... but they are still full of bugs and aren't quite the same, though they have their advantages and disadvantages...

It would be nice if we could get a miracle upgrade for UO but the likelihood that it will happen in our lifetime is pretty slim...

As for the shard idea... I think it stinks. It's like playing in the TC... who wants to have everything wiped periodically? Waste of playtime if you ask me... I mean I can build new characters all day long but really do I want to? No... I've played many of the same characters for over 12 years... some 20+... They are loved... that's why I still cling to them... if I wanted to start all over I'd have moved to another shard ages ago... but don't give a rats about any other shard but my home shard. I've tried Siege, I've tried moving to Legends once... didn't much care for that and haven't bothered since. And I don't know about anyone else but every one of my accounts is fully upgraded with 7 slots and has ZERO room to transfer some 1/2 made character to from some temp shard... now that said I have the fortune of having tons of shields on multiple accounts and could transfer that character away to some other shard easy enough but why??? Again I am not really interested in any other shards...

So what it boils down to IMO is taking up the DEVs time to again cater to those who seem to enjoy playing on every single shard and getting all the "stuff" so they can sell it or collect junk... and really ignoring most the issues with the rest of the player base as per usual... catering to the few... at the expense of the many and continuing to ignore the things that really matter...

But like a bunch of Dingleberries, we'll still cling on... well, at least some will... I'm giving it about a year or so and if I don't see anything that makes me care I'm letting go.
 

Veldrane

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
iT's nOt GoInG tO HaPpEn.

Eat it.
They've been working on it for seven months and had nothing to demo, no specifics on how it's going to work, or what the timeline for completion is. So I wouldn't go counting my chickens just yet. This new server is just vaporware at this point until they start sharing their progress and details - two weeks after the "big" announcement and we haven't heard anything since.
 

Lord Nabin

High Council Sage - Greater Sosaria
Professional
Supporter
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Glorious Lord
You are not wrong my friend.
 

celticus

Crazed Zealot
UNLEASHED
They've been working on it for seven months and had nothing to demo, no specifics on how it's going to work, or what the timeline for completion is. So I wouldn't go counting my chickens just yet. This new server is just vaporware at this point until they start sharing their progress and details - two weeks after the "big" announcement and we haven't heard anything since.
Yes but..
It is likely a large project, with 1001 parameters, and items to set and fine tune. Any one can install a UO server program on their computer. And this cannot be one of the "out there" UO servers due to UO being a real and legal corporation and they are bound by copywright laws. So they must code lots of the modifications. That takes time. But to make it so it will be functional with the standards Devs and us expect, is another additional thing. It takes time. Two-four weeks imo is not too possible. They will put it out, and likely do a TC1 wipe, and test it out there first. I do not think they are bsing us. They are trying to do a half-way decent job I suspect. A few weeks ago it was just an idea. In 1-2 months it may be a playable UO server. Just be a little patient. We got to be fair.
 

Veldrane

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
They are trying to do a In 1-2 months it may be a playable UO server. Just be a little patient. We got to be fair.
Nope, sorry. Seven months into a project at the very least they should have a clear understanding of the requirements and acceptance criteria. They should have been able to provide more than just ”we’re going to do some stuff and change some things”.

They already got their “just be a little patient” mulligan when they delayed announcing this back in March.
 

Lord Nabin

High Council Sage - Greater Sosaria
Professional
Supporter
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Glorious Lord
Hoestly for a big announcement. I think it's fair to have expected this to be much farther along. Announcing this with the open beta testing apply now would have been ideal. Sort of like how time of legends went.
 

Nexus

Site Support
Administrator
Moderator
Professional
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Wiki Moderator
UNLEASHED
Over 4000 people have viewed my 2017 Tour video of the game.
So about 4 people a day viewed it.
5546D8D2-B560-417E-A336-5991E776E768.jpeg

656 views, I uploaded it Monday.

If you want to know how the game is doing... buy some EA stock so you can see where the money is coming and going. UO is in the 2-5k unique player range, I’ve heard that from multiple sources including some that had inside knowledge.
 
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