Bags of Sending Changes: Better or Worse?

[imported_Ishtar]

I'm asking for feedback for an article on this, so please chime in as this is for a news piece!

Now that the bag of sending changes have been implimented for a while I'd like a weigh in for an article. Any responses would be greatly appreciated.

Remember you may be quoted!

 

[imported_Grigg of Einhorn]

Even though I realize this was the attempt to get a handle on the scripters there, it has become incredibly inconvenient for those of us that were 'playing by the rules'. Training new players I would always equip them with a Sack of Sending. It was just better to not disturb a good momentum in training making a run to the bank, especially when most new players don't even understand when they become frozen, and too encumbered to move. Especially since this always seems to happen at the most inopportune time, cause you death, possibly loot, and the insurance costs on your things.

When on hunting parties or in the course of recourse collections, it was nice to send a hundred leathers or such to the bank when you found you were suddenly overweight. Just as moving to a new house, often it was a simple matter to send bulk items you may have accumulated to the bank, and move into your new how at your leaser.

I realize there are those out there that didn't utilize the SoS in this manner, and many that really don't care about the changes at all. But as someone who find them very useful in training new players, I really think the changes are shameful. The new systems is actually punishing the innocent for the crimes of the scripters.

And hey, I realize there will be a lot of people that will disagree with my thoughts here, just my own observations.

 

[Sam the Scribe]

Did we ever get an official reason for this change or is it all speculation by the player base? Forgive me if I've missed a FoF or a post by Jeremy, but that might be something good to include in your article.

As for the change... as a casual player I find the changes pretty much make the bags worthless. I was just getting into doing the ant quests, etc to get the bags and trans powder. I haven' t done one since the change.

When you're deep in a nasty dungeon the whole "you can just recall out" argument doesn't hold much water. I dont farm gold, but if I'm having fun and actually making piles of gold off certain critters then I sure as heck would like to be able to keep it. I dont usually get to play in large time blocks so if I get somewhere fun to play, I want to stay. Why can't I keep the gold I'm making?

One thing that kinda irritates me is that the bags wont send what they can. If I have enough charges to send half the gold in my pack... then it should be sent.

Overall I think this was a bad change that hurt the legit players.

Safe Travels, Sam

 

[imported_Ishtar]

This was EA's exlanation:

"Why was the Bag of Sending nerfed?"
The short answer is, to curb inflation. The longer answer involves some metaphors, so bear with me a moment.

UO's economy was designed on the "faucet/sink" model. Imagine a faucet that pours gold into the world. Now imagine various drains - "gold sinks" - that the gold flows away into. The goal of the system is for the level of gold in the world to remain approximately even, and that's done by adjusting the rate of the flow in and the size of the drains out.

In UO, the "faucets" are the various NPCs that give players gold - monsters you can loot, escorts or quests that give gold as a reward, etc. The drains are any NPC or system that takes gold away from players - the insurance system is a big one, as are player vendor fees. (Player-to-player trades are NOT sinks - moving the gold around within the world doesn't change the overall amount of money in it.)

The Bags of Sending were increasing the rate of flow of gold from monster loot - that faucet was pretty much cranked as wide as it would go. This has been overwhelming the drains and increasing the amount of money in the world, which lowers the actual value of gold - this is what economists mean by "inflation." Changing the Bags of Sending to make farming for gold less profitable will slow down that flow and hopefully slow down the rate of inflation - which will raise prices in the short run but lower them substantially in the long run, as the drains pull money out of the world and the actual value of gold goes up.

Now, MMO economics are far from an exact science, and the system will no doubt require further tweaking, but this is a step in the right direction.

*From their archives on UO.com

 

[Sam the Scribe]

<blockquote><hr>

...Changing the Bags of Sending to make farming for gold less profitable will slow down that flow and hopefully slow down the rate of inflation - which will raise prices in the short run but lower them substantially in the long run, as the drains pull money out of the world and the actual value of gold goes up.

Now, MMO economics are far from an exact science, and the system will no doubt require further tweaking, but this is a step in the right direction...

[/ QUOTE ]

Will you be requesting comment from EA on your article? I would like to see some followup to this and if they think additional "tweaks" are necessary. I've seen prices drop on some items but it seems that's mainly because of the changes to the Doom drop rate.

Did the bags of sending accomplish the original goal?

Safe Travels, Sam

 

[imported_Ishtar]

I have yet to see this truly affect the economy, housing is still obscene. I hope EA sees it. All Ic an do is be your voice with this stuff but I'll do my best.

 

[Cat Crimson]

Could someone link me to something describing the actual changes - Ive just come back after a hiatus playing and I have no clue what's up with BoS's now ? Thanks.

 

[Sam the Scribe]

There is a sticky on the topic at the top of UHall Forum.

Safe Travels, Sam

 

[Cat Crimson]

Ah. U-Hell. No wonder I didn't spot it, it's somewhere I only go if dragged kicking and screaming. O well. Thanks for the info though.

 

[imported_Ishtar]

I put the change up the only think missing is that now for every 10 stones, the bag uses 1 charge. So you can burn a bag in one hunting trip.

 

[imported_GFY]

I would have to agree with the posts I've read so far. I'm not a 24/7 UO scripter that farms all the resourses I can find. I do however like to go out and get what I need for crafting. I also farm gold but do it the legal way by actually playing the game. I used to farm in Fel dungeons to take advantage of the increase in gold and better chance for usable items. Now however without BoS it isn't woth going to a Fel dungeon. I have to walk all the way in, farm for 5-10 minutes, walk all the way out, then recall to a bank. This greatly increases the chances of running into a red and losing all my hard earned loot. Not to mention making farming for crafting supplies just as useless.

I understand the need to do something about this gold stream. Why not make the BoS use more charges for gold or maybe not even for gold at all. This would enable resourses to be sent to a bank in good numbers but still slow a gold stream.

I feel the changes hurt the casual player more then the script player. A script player will just change their script and do something else. A casual player will move on to something else, or worse another game entirely.

Lastly I don't feel that hunting creatures for gold is a bad way to make a UO living. Some players just don't get into crafting or running vendors. You shouldn't be forced into doing this just to be able to play the game you love.

Hope this helps.

 

[imported_Ishtar]

Thanks everyone!

 

[legs]

I havn't the sort of personality to maintain and manage a vendor house, or series of vendors. Nor do i pvp..

that leaves PVM'ing for gold to sustain UO life.

In other words, they have taken away my ability to support myself....

bad move........ sad move...... will it help the economy if i don't make any gold?