********.
Subs went UP after Trammel was introduced. This isn't supposition, it is demonstrated and EA confirmed FACT. Subs peaked a few months after AoS, then started the long spiral down.
Trammel saved UO. To think any differently is delusional.
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Subs went UP after Trammel was introduced. This isn't supposition, it is demonstrated and EA confirmed FACT. Subs peaked a few months after AoS, then started the long spiral down.
Trammel saved UO. To think any differently is delusional.
Trammel was introduced before item insurance, with item insurance, trammel is no longer necessary.
Yes, Mervyn, it is. Insurance aside many, many players simply do not like fighting against other players. It is not a playstyle they enjoy. It is not 'fun'.
If you don't want to play it, don't play it.
I'm not asking for people to join my non existent shard, if you build it, they will come.
Also, you'll be surprised at how well people work together, it's not always fighting everyone you see, ask anyone on europa and they will tell you my guild is "Zerg" as we are a lot of players working together.
No, just no.
The vast majority of UO players have ZERO INTEREST in PvP, hence the reason Fel is so wildly underpopulated. Those players are the ones footing most of the bill to keep the servers turned on. None of them are going to flock to a new Fel ruleset shard just because it has insurance - they have no desire to be a lamb in your slaughterhouse.
As Galen has so aptly put it, Felucca is a failed business model. 12 years has proven this.
Meryvn - Everyone who wants to pvp with insurance are already pvping with insurance, on the existing shards.
The biggest problem is, there aren't enough people to kill - because the easy kill victims escaped to Trammel and they're not coming back.
I'm not opposing it, just trying to help you see why it's just not going to happen. It's impractical, unprofitable and unneeded.
That's your opinion (of a self confessed trammie), 10 minutes work to open a couple of servers, I think it would attract subscribers. I can't be the only person who would play this shard. Plus, no one need to scan for scripters as it's difficult to script in fel.
If nothing else your posts are cute for their personal attacks ("you and your kind") and your increasingly-twisted logic.
If Trammel was going to harm or kill UO, UO would be dead already. It's been 12 years or so. A long time to whine about losing fodder.
-Galen's player
I'm merely asking for an alternative for me and "my kind" of which there are many - all paying subscribers, i'm not saying they should destroy trammel on your shard.
You are seeking another rules set, to personally suit your needs. You do not wish to play Siege and wish to have more victims. Further there's no good reason to think that rules set would attract anyone, given that Felucca on its own merits failed years ago and an unending stream of incentives to get people there have led to naught but more incentives.
You really need to get over Trammel. It's been a dozen years.
-Galen's player
As much as throwing food at trolls is fun, Mervyn's deluded quest should come to an end now. This is never going to happen for the reasons stated multiple times and simply because it is a terrible idea.
Past time to put this thread out of our misery.
Past time to put this thread out of our misery.
Reason no one goes there is there is no reason to go there except to do champs, which people do quite a lot. The problem is, for years slowly artifacts have been introduced but have been obtainable in trammel and not in fel. I do medusa, not to pvp but to get a slither, i will still do medusa if it's fel ruleset.
S
Sevin0oo0
Guest
I agree, and I'd bet money that's not going to happen, TC Yes, production No.
Here's my thinking, If a good model is born, appears sounds, with few objections to the system pipes, then apply it to production. I think the OP is looking for a change to make the game better by addressing a certain area. Like old dungeons, fel is simply under utilized, and needs an update too
As has been stated by myself and others, the problem isn't that there's no reason to go. There's plenty of reasons. Power scrolls. Khaldun content. Double Fame. Unique content in the Abyss Fel Champs. Faction Artifacts. Stat scrolls. Etc. The problem isn't that there's no reason to go, it's that only a tiny fraction of players wants to experience the Fel lifestyle. When given a choice they took the other path. If people wanted Fel they would never have had to make Trammel in the first place and they would not have had to add an unending streams of incentives for people to go. People would go because they wanted. They don't, and they haven't.
-GAlen's player
Oy to the vey.
Ignoring the poor thought structure, lets break this down...
Fel is supposed to be about "Risk vs Reward," right? The fanciful phrase that every nostalgic UO Vet who just knows, in their heart of hearts, that every current UO player secretly desires - contrary to all perceptible reality.
Riiiiiiiiight...
People do champs in Fel for the pinks and the replicas. Thats it. Not to be chased around by script running twinks looking to get 15 seconds of jollies laying the smackdown on the Trammie noobs. Fel, as a playstyle, DOES NOT INTEREST THEM. Not sure how to make that any clearer for you.
Fel. Does. Not. Interest. Most. Players.
Go play Siege.
Or, better yet, continue to play in your home shard as normal since your "argument" is moot.
Nobody goes to Fel...except for the lots of people who do champs? Really? Contradiction much?
Ignoring the poor thought structure, lets break this down...
Fel is supposed to be about "Risk vs Reward," right? The fanciful phrase that every nostalgic UO Vet who just knows, in their heart of hearts, that every current UO player secretly desires - contrary to all perceptible reality.
Riiiiiiiiight...
People do champs in Fel for the pinks and the replicas. Thats it. Not to be chased around by script running twinks looking to get 15 seconds of jollies laying the smackdown on the Trammie noobs. Fel, as a playstyle, DOES NOT INTEREST THEM. Not sure how to make that any clearer for you.
Uhm... Right... Since 95% of the players are in Trammel ruleset facets. Fel's continued incentives HAVE NOT WORKED. They haven't brought the masses flocking to Fel because Fel, as a playstyle, DOES NOT INTEREST THEM. Few people want to farm for artifacts while having to also distrust any PC who wanders onto their screen. They don't want to work for hours to get a drop and instantly be slaughtered, thus losing hours of potential play time.
Fel. Does. Not. Interest. Most. Players.
Yay. For. You.
Go play Siege.
Or, better yet, continue to play in your home shard as normal since your "argument" is moot.
I'm going to ask everyone who thinks this is a crackbrained idea to now boycott this thread and stop posting it.
Power scrolls are done to death and the market has been flooded for years, most people i know have tons sitting about in there houses, a good many idocs i do go to have chests full of them, Fighting over a champ for the last few years if not longer are not for the scrolls its for the fight.
Khaldun content? what is there worth doing in there?
Double fame... like that's an incentive... you get the same amount of fame in tram in the end only difference its faster in fel that's all.
Faction Items - Imbuing / reforging for the most part has made them useless and players that play multiple shards use them for a quick suit, Hence all the complaining when they changed the ranking system and quite rightly so ( the complaining i mean)
Stat scrolls are in the same boat as power scrolls.
so that just leaves unique drops that's it... most of the better stuff is in tram and can be done solo for the most part risk free.
I think merv has the right "idea" but not the right approach , the land mass in far to big for it work IMO and the extra shards just wouldn't happen waste of time and it also takes away players from more deader shards to make them even more dead.
Factions are broken have been broken since they did the original revamp years ago, fel does need love but what ? I dunno.
my thoughts on the matter.
This is a fairly typical response. "These are not real incentives."
Well, what would be a real incentive? The Khaldun content was new and exciting when it came out. Was a lot of fun. With the problem that few who would appreciate it ever experienced it because they didn't want to experience the Fel lifestyle. More or less the same dynamic is played out now with the Fel Abyss Champs. Nothing I've read about Reforging leads me to believe that it can reproduce, say, a Faction Crimson Cincture or a Faction Ornament of the Magician or a Faction Inquisitor's Resolution or a Faction Folded Steel Glasses etc. Regarding Fame, the fact that it's faster is the incentive. You can reach heights of Fame from a few demons in Fel that it requires a dozen or so Balrons to achieve elsewhere in the game. Since when is efficiency not an incentive? Power scrolls and stat scrolls are perhaps the only item every character will need sooner or later and they are available only in Fel. The highest-end ones still sell for millions and these days the lower-end ones can be turned into the higher-end ones.
The only way these are not good incentives is if you are willing to admit that most people don't want to experience the Fel lifestyle no matter what you dangle in front of them.
The bottom line is that if you want to experience the Fel lifestyle, you need no incentives to do it. It's your thing, you're into it, you don't need to be lured. Most players, however, do not want to experience that. Next to that disincentive, no incentive can possibly work in the long run. Why they keep trying is beyond me.
-Galen's player
A large land mass is a good thing, the shard is not actually purely for pvp, you need places to go to get away from everyone to train or farm gold or resources or whatever in peace.
While it may take players from existing shards, it should bring newer players as the concept is different to what is currently available.
While it may take players from existing shards, it should bring newer players as the concept is different to what is currently available.
T
Tazar
Guest
A self professed trammie that plays Siege? Without Insurance? ROFL.
And where would the money to pay for these new servers come from? The hardware isn't cheap... Are they supposed to close a few existing servers to free up space? Cut future projects to free up funds? Lay off Staff to cut payroll? heck - the staff meeting to determine how to fund it would take over an hour - much less 10 minutes...
How long did it take to create "shard of the dead?" which was vastly more complicated than the shard I've suggested.
the funding would come from the extra subscribers.
If the entire shard is Fel, nowhere is "safe" or "peaceful" as we all know that and enterprising PK (read griefer) will go out of their way to hunt you down if they know sheep are ripe for the slaughter. Nobidy wants to play the sheeo anymore, this isn't 1997.
Uhm. No. Unequivically no. Not gunna happen. Nobody is going to try UO looking to be sheep. Few people want to go to Fel in regular shards, or play Siege, they aren't going to jump to a new 100% Fel shard (with unsurance!). Your reasoning is hopelessly flawed.
T
Tazar
Guest
Shard of the dead was created using the test-bed server - and it took a lot more than 10 minutes - and the staff did it in their own time after hours...
As to the funding... aren't you counting chickens before they hatch? You'd have to pay for the server before you could have any of those potential subscribers... and your assumption there is still highly debatable.
As to the funding... aren't you counting chickens before they hatch? You'd have to pay for the server before you could have any of those potential subscribers... and your assumption there is still highly debatable.
Shard of the Dead was done on the Dev's own unpaid time many years ago. This was when the team was easily double or quintupple what we have now, and it probably took them months to do.
Right. The idiotic Classic shard was turned down because Calvin knew "more subscribers" was just a bs propaganda line from Morganna.
Stupidity needs to be put down like a rabid dog.
Ah, the days of old.
Mervyn is suggesting an idea that totally makes REAL sense. Read my post, if this is not the direction you were thinking, as I skimmed over everything really, feel free to correct me.
Actually having SOME type of thrill to doing the needless (gathering resources for [crafting skill]).
If you can basically pvp/attempt to pvp with no REAL risk (losing a suit/weapon) and your only losing "time, from farming w/e" why not?
There really shouldn’t be this much of a hated reaction to this idea.
+1 from me for this Fel rule set with insurance idea.
Story time!
Remember when you would think "I need feathers to make arrows/bolts." Yes there was a time when you had to be self-sufficient, that or have LOTS of gold to buy off NPC's. Typically you either had a smith/tailor mule, or a provoker to make money.
"I want to eventually hunt [monster name here] with arrow and bow tonight, off to Covetus I go". You would peek inside, take a run through past the harpy room...just to be sure it was clear of PK's.
Hacking and slashing your way through a few harpies; satisfied with your total number of feathers, then you swear you just saw a blip of a red-name in the far edge of your screen.
Surely your weary eyes are playing trick on you, after all there is no super easy way to kill a harpy in these days [no chiv, bushido].
Suddenly you are attacked as you are leaving the dungeon, being carefull not to stand on the floor traps that would engulf your entire body in flames, hastening the rate at which you will lose your well-earned feathers.
The PK is trying to kill you! NO, not my few hundred feathers!!! I just bought this GM Heavy Archer Set!
You escape with your life to the town of either Minoc, Vesper, or Cove. A second though crosses your mind shortly after the battle....what if my bowcraft/fletchy isnt high enough and I break half of the feathers...I'll need to go back...
Same scenario now:
I need feathers? *logs on sampire*
Casts EOO, bashes away at harpies in the safety of tram/malas/ilshnear/japan town, ter mur for approx. 5 minutes.
Satisfied with your 10k feathers, you log on your mule...equip a +% to bow craft with a few clicks, 10k arrows/bolts with no risk. The biggest risk you took was not being able to log out right away if you whacked a rat as you recalled home.
All in the safety of tram...
Mervyn is suggesting an idea that totally makes REAL sense. Read my post, if this is not the direction you were thinking, as I skimmed over everything really, feel free to correct me.
Actually having SOME type of thrill to doing the needless (gathering resources for [crafting skill]).
If you can basically pvp/attempt to pvp with no REAL risk (losing a suit/weapon) and your only losing "time, from farming w/e" why not?
There really shouldn’t be this much of a hated reaction to this idea.
+1 from me for this Fel rule set with insurance idea.
Story time!
Remember when you would think "I need feathers to make arrows/bolts." Yes there was a time when you had to be self-sufficient, that or have LOTS of gold to buy off NPC's. Typically you either had a smith/tailor mule, or a provoker to make money.
"I want to eventually hunt [monster name here] with arrow and bow tonight, off to Covetus I go". You would peek inside, take a run through past the harpy room...just to be sure it was clear of PK's.
Hacking and slashing your way through a few harpies; satisfied with your total number of feathers, then you swear you just saw a blip of a red-name in the far edge of your screen.
Surely your weary eyes are playing trick on you, after all there is no super easy way to kill a harpy in these days [no chiv, bushido].
Suddenly you are attacked as you are leaving the dungeon, being carefull not to stand on the floor traps that would engulf your entire body in flames, hastening the rate at which you will lose your well-earned feathers.
The PK is trying to kill you! NO, not my few hundred feathers!!! I just bought this GM Heavy Archer Set!
You escape with your life to the town of either Minoc, Vesper, or Cove. A second though crosses your mind shortly after the battle....what if my bowcraft/fletchy isnt high enough and I break half of the feathers...I'll need to go back...
Same scenario now:
I need feathers? *logs on sampire*
Casts EOO, bashes away at harpies in the safety of tram/malas/ilshnear/japan town, ter mur for approx. 5 minutes.
Satisfied with your 10k feathers, you log on your mule...equip a +% to bow craft with a few clicks, 10k arrows/bolts with no risk. The biggest risk you took was not being able to log out right away if you whacked a rat as you recalled home.
All in the safety of tram...
S
Sevin0oo0
Guest
Exactly, Seems the ones that aren't lured, are Forced to deal with it, on their own terms, which reinforces their decision. imo, Devs are:
Mervyn wants an entire shard that's Fel ruleset. Barely anyone plays in Fel as it is. Siege exists. The idea makes no logical or fiscal sense. Idea = fail.
This is a fairly typical response. "These are not real incentives."
Well, what would be a real incentive?
The Khaldun content was new and exciting when it came out. Was a lot of fun.
With the problem that few who would appreciate it ever experienced it because they didn't want to experience the Fel lifestyle. More or less the same dynamic is played out now with the Fel Abyss Champs.
With the problem that few who would appreciate it ever experienced it because they didn't want to experience the Fel lifestyle. More or less the same dynamic is played out now with the Fel Abyss Champs.
Nothing I've read about Reforging leads me to believe that it can reproduce, say, a Faction Crimson Cincture or a Faction Ornament of the Magician or a Faction Inquisitor's Resolution or a Faction Folded Steel Glasses etc.
Regarding Fame, the fact that it's faster is the incentive. You can reach heights of Fame from a few demons in Fel that it requires a dozen or so Balrons to achieve elsewhere in the game.
Since when is efficiency not an incentive?
Power scrolls and stat scrolls are perhaps the only item every character will need sooner or later and they are available only in Fel. The highest-end ones still sell for millions and these days the lower-end ones can be turned into the higher-end ones.
The only way these are not good incentives is if you are willing to admit that most people don't want to experience the Fel lifestyle no matter what you dangle in front of them.
The bottom line is that if you want to experience the Fel lifestyle, you need no incentives to do it. It's your thing, you're into it, you don't need to be lured. Most players, however, do not want to experience that. Next to that disincentive, no incentive can possibly work in the long run. Why they keep trying is beyond me.
- Its Because there not any "real incentives", so your going to get the typical response all the time...
Well, what would be a real incentive?
- God knows but what you have listed is not, Faction items until recently were being used allot by trammies to get better suits to do tram stuff, they took fel items back into tram. I don't care that this happened but it did.
The Khaldun content was new and exciting when it came out. Was a lot of fun.
With the problem that few who would appreciate it ever experienced it because they didn't want to experience the Fel lifestyle. More or less the same dynamic is played out now with the Fel Abyss Champs.
- Was - past tense, there's no reason to go there any more and that's been like that for years , its a wasted area only for past history.
With the problem that few who would appreciate it ever experienced it because they didn't want to experience the Fel lifestyle. More or less the same dynamic is played out now with the Fel Abyss Champs.
- Certain people do certain things. that's what makes UO great, they can get items from tram to sell, to buy the items from people that do fel and the cycle of UO is complete,.
Nothing I've read about Reforging leads me to believe that it can reproduce, say, a Faction Crimson Cincture or a Faction Ornament of the Magician or a Faction Inquisitor's Resolution or a Faction Folded Steel Glasses etc.
- 3 - 4 Items are unique in the making suits that little better, but with the right crafting it can be done, but then again factions is broken again and makes it harder so people have gone back to tram items to compete.
Regarding Fame, the fact that it's faster is the incentive. You can reach heights of Fame from a few demons in Fel that it requires a dozen or so Balrons to achieve elsewhere in the game.
Since when is efficiency not an incentive?
- But what's the point if going to kill demons they drop nothing worth keeping, when you can go to shame in tram and kill wind ele's in a chance to get a good drop risk free and sit there farming, in the end you will gain fame and better loot to boot, more incentive to stay in tram.
Power scrolls and stat scrolls are perhaps the only item every character will need sooner or later and they are available only in Fel. The highest-end ones still sell for millions and these days the lower-end ones can be turned into the higher-end ones.
- Money is so easily obtainable, IE farm shame in tram, keep the gold sell the better items, i looted a 15 splintering 30 ssi ubws war fork sold it for 5 mil, you can by most PS u need with that or save the money keep farming sell more till you have enough to buy the PS you want risk free.
The only way these are not good incentives is if you are willing to admit that most people don't want to experience the Fel lifestyle no matter what you dangle in front of them.
- yes because you can achieve the same results in tram, takes you that little bit longer but its all risk free.
The bottom line is that if you want to experience the Fel lifestyle, you need no incentives to do it. It's your thing, you're into it, you don't need to be lured. Most players, however, do not want to experience that. Next to that disincentive, no incentive can possibly work in the long run. Why they keep trying is beyond me.
- The same reason why you keep trying there is , because there isn't, agreed in the long run it will come back the same discussion, but tram has had its fair share of expansions to keep people happy and it does work , but they have to keep adding, that's why fel does need a little love and that's why merv is trying to come up with an idea that might work.
Try to think of it this way...
Fel is only Fel right now. Although it is quite vast the only real incentive to venture to Fel currently is powerscrolls, 99.9999999% of PvPers know this. Bet you 100mil I know where "they" will be [champ location name here].
If you were to make a mirror world with all Fel ruleset, you would literally have the ENTIRE WORLD to "hide in". Sure there is a chance, a really small chance, that you may be found by a PK and die.
The only thing you would lose is the equivilant of time. Time invested to: 1) find your farming spot 2) whatever you were farming item wise 3) insurance gold 4) time to get your pet(s) rezzed
I'm sure the argument will be made "I HAVE LIMITED TIME TO PLAY, LOSING ALL MY STUFF IS NOT FUN FOR ME!!!!!" [crying smiley here]
That is a valid gripe, but that just means...
DONT PLAY THIS SHARD THEN!
[quote="EDA_GL, post: 2127775, member: 150197"
That is a valid gripe, but that just means...
DONT PLAY THIS SHARD THEN![/quote]
Therein lies the rub! The shard is doomed to fail from the start. I'm sure the 10 people who might deign to play there will be very happy. Meanwhile, the Devs will have another specialty ruleset to contend with that the vast majority of UO players have zero interest in.
While it might make Mervyn squee with joy, some of us would prefer the Devs work on what we already have rather then piss away time and money.
That is a valid gripe, but that just means...
DONT PLAY THIS SHARD THEN![/quote]
Therein lies the rub! The shard is doomed to fail from the start. I'm sure the 10 people who might deign to play there will be very happy. Meanwhile, the Devs will have another specialty ruleset to contend with that the vast majority of UO players have zero interest in.
While it might make Mervyn squee with joy, some of us would prefer the Devs work on what we already have rather then piss away time and money.
Therein lies the rub! The shard is doomed to fail from the start. I'm sure the 10 people who might deign to play there will be very happy. Meanwhile, the Devs will have another specialty ruleset to contend with that the vast majority of UO players have zero interest in.
While it might make Mervyn squee with joy, some of us would rather the Devs work on what we already have rather then piss away time and money.[/quote]
"Copy Seige...check
Allow item insurance...[checks box]...check
Name of shard 'The days of old'...check
Host shard....YES
'Are you sure? Martyna Zmuir says it is NOT going to end well...YES
Reap the rewards...check"
You are right, it takes too long to copy a shard.
Therein lies the rub! The shard is doomed to fail from the start. I'm sure the 10 people who might deign to play there will be very happy. Meanwhile, the Devs will have another specialty ruleset to contend with that the vast majority of UO players have zero interest in.
While it might make Mervyn squee with joy, some of us would prefer the Devs work on what we already have rather then piss away time and money.[/quote]
We get it you don't like fel, but there's a "vast majority" that do, and would encourage an idea that would populate it more, even tho mervs idea isn't "the one"
Let me also point out this, PVM characters are designed a specific way. Toss a pvp, red, template into the abyss and they are at a distinct dis-advantage.
Personally, when it comes to raiding spawns I have a difficult time navigating in the mass spawn...while pvmers zip through with ease.
When/if this idea becomes a reality, the pvmers will have the upper hand. They know the layout of whatever area they are in, the PK will not (usually).
This shard encompasses the idea of people WANT to try to pvp, but want their 'way of life' to be hit minimally. Yes, referring to trammies.
LMAO If it wasn't for Tram back in 2000 you wouldn't even be here posting all this. Tram saved UO, FACT.
True, i didn't word it correctly, it's the slow corruption of the game step by step introducing artifacts to trammel since then that has had a negative effect.
never mentioned time and cost, i just don't think this is the idea to get fel up to speed again, i haven't really thought what is tbh, in some respects im defending you.
Cool down tiger! ill get prank on u :<<
Cool down tiger! ill get prank on u :<<
kelmo
Old and in the way
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Le with a side of sigh.
Hi, I've been playing UO since pre-alpha. I played when Fel was all there was, lived through the days of incessant PKs and griefers. I didn't take a break from UO till about four months after AoS, when I had became disillusioned with the then Dev Team's directionlessness. I still have two homes in Fel that I actively use.
I can look around Fel on GL and maybe find two people on any given day (before Factions were shat on). Sometimes there is a fight at the Yew gate, mostly its just epeen waving in general chat. There was the rare occasion of brief Faction stronghold sieges and sigil wars, but they were few and far between. I farm stuff in Fel because I know its highly unlikely that I'll be bothered. The "risk" doesn't make the experience "better," just potentially more annoying.
Now, since we know that Fel is underpopulated on nearly every shard - for the undeniable reason that the demonstrated majority of UO players has zero interest in any sort of PvP (made evident by 1) the creation of Trammel 2) the desertion of Fel 3) the feckless Fel incentives) How exactly would Mervyn's idea of creating a new shard with the Fel rules extended to all facets benefit UO as a whole? We already have a Fel with insurance on every shard but Siege/Mugen...few people play there!
Repeating an action (copying Fel) and expecting different results (like an actual population) is the definition of insanity. We have a Fel with insurance. Its called Fel.
Hi, I've been playing UO since pre-alpha. I played when Fel was all there was, lived through the days of incessant PKs and griefers. I didn't take a break from UO till about four months after AoS, when I had became disillusioned with the then Dev Team's directionlessness. I still have two homes in Fel that I actively use.
I can look around Fel on GL and maybe find two people on any given day (before Factions were shat on). Sometimes there is a fight at the Yew gate, mostly its just epeen waving in general chat. There was the rare occasion of brief Faction stronghold sieges and sigil wars, but they were few and far between. I farm stuff in Fel because I know its highly unlikely that I'll be bothered. The "risk" doesn't make the experience "better," just potentially more annoying.
Now, since we know that Fel is underpopulated on nearly every shard - for the undeniable reason that the demonstrated majority of UO players has zero interest in any sort of PvP (made evident by 1) the creation of Trammel 2) the desertion of Fel 3) the feckless Fel incentives) How exactly would Mervyn's idea of creating a new shard with the Fel rules extended to all facets benefit UO as a whole? We already have a Fel with insurance on every shard but Siege/Mugen...few people play there!
Repeating an action (copying Fel) and expecting different results (like an actual population) is the definition of insanity. We have a Fel with insurance. Its called Fel.
I guess this is technically true as without trammel, UO would have been shut down and have zero population.
uhhhh yeah....this is not a movie and you are not Kevin Costner.
Now, for some deranged reason, lets say that Jeff decided to run with Mervyn's plan as stated: A brand new shard with Fel rules throughout, to include insurance.
Mervyn's squeegasm aside, there are real financial things to consider.
1) Server Hardware, hosting, et al.
Since people might actually expect the server to stay up a decent period of time, they would need to invest in another rack of whatever hardware runs a typical UO server. Let's say their hosting facility has blade servers... Say UO's equipment costs 5K a pop. So that's roughly 385 subscribers, just to pay for the hardware. Let's say that bandwidth, power, maintenance, etc, cost an additional 3K a month - so 230 people would have to make this shard their permanent home for EA to break even on the upkeep.
2) Dev Time
Bursting Mervyn's bubble here, but UO isn't a plug and play DB. Current working theory is that the servers are run as flat file DBs (which could be why things act funky). Changing things to be different from the stock shard code isn't as easy as it sounds. The devs would have to dip into the code and remove all references to Trammel, move Trammel only quest NPCs, change menus, move/create spawn points for mobs/items/etc. THEN they would have to actively maintain this new shard code (like they have done with Siege...whish hasn't been anywhere near perfect) to ensure that new content updates don't bork.
While we have no idea what anyone on the Dev Team makes annually, you can be assured it is around industry standard, i.e. expensive. Calculating the cost of the Dev time is impossible, but it will be significantly more than "10 mins."
Calvin once tossed out 7k subscribers as the required number for a new shard (meaning a classic shard at the time) to offset all these expenses and ensure that EA reaped a financial benefit. Without said benefit, EA would never greenlight such a project.
3) Getting people to play
This will be the most difficult for the reasons as stated numerous times before. Only a fractional minority of the playerbase is even interested in Fel, and most of those people would prefer if they could get everything they wanted in Tram. They don't play in Fel now, they sure as hell wouldn't flock to a new shard which literally revolved around it.
Mervyn's squeegasm aside, there are real financial things to consider.
1) Server Hardware, hosting, et al.
Since people might actually expect the server to stay up a decent period of time, they would need to invest in another rack of whatever hardware runs a typical UO server. Let's say their hosting facility has blade servers... Say UO's equipment costs 5K a pop. So that's roughly 385 subscribers, just to pay for the hardware. Let's say that bandwidth, power, maintenance, etc, cost an additional 3K a month - so 230 people would have to make this shard their permanent home for EA to break even on the upkeep.
2) Dev Time
Bursting Mervyn's bubble here, but UO isn't a plug and play DB. Current working theory is that the servers are run as flat file DBs (which could be why things act funky). Changing things to be different from the stock shard code isn't as easy as it sounds. The devs would have to dip into the code and remove all references to Trammel, move Trammel only quest NPCs, change menus, move/create spawn points for mobs/items/etc. THEN they would have to actively maintain this new shard code (like they have done with Siege...whish hasn't been anywhere near perfect) to ensure that new content updates don't bork.
While we have no idea what anyone on the Dev Team makes annually, you can be assured it is around industry standard, i.e. expensive. Calculating the cost of the Dev time is impossible, but it will be significantly more than "10 mins."
Calvin once tossed out 7k subscribers as the required number for a new shard (meaning a classic shard at the time) to offset all these expenses and ensure that EA reaped a financial benefit. Without said benefit, EA would never greenlight such a project.
3) Getting people to play
This will be the most difficult for the reasons as stated numerous times before. Only a fractional minority of the playerbase is even interested in Fel, and most of those people would prefer if they could get everything they wanted in Tram. They don't play in Fel now, they sure as hell wouldn't flock to a new shard which literally revolved around it.
- Status