Classic shard question

[xavierscythe]

Hey there,

I haven't played UO in several years, so I'm kind of out of the loop on this stuff. I was talking with a friend of mine the other day and he mentioned that the dev team released a classic shard to test the waters, and then took it down.

I did some quick googling and do see that they released something like that. But, the trail kind of ends there. What happened with it? Are they still considering this?

 

[sativa green]

there was no "classic" shard released. your friend was talking about Shard of the Dead which was a Halloween event shard that was only classic in terms of having no item insurance or bless deeds. all current skills were still active and it was shut down for limited participation.

info about it can be found here: the most recent one was from 2010
Shard of the Dead - UOGuide, the Ultima Online encyclopedia

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

SotD was shut down because the Halloween season was over. The shard was a criticism lightening rod due to a 1-hit-kill weapon, causing many people to boycot it.

Some people were under the mistaken impression that SotD was linked to testing the viability of a classic shard. This was due to the wishy-washy way in which Calvin, the former producer, handled the whole classic question.

 

[sativa green]

"We will be closing the special event "Shard of the Dead" shortly due to waning participation."

seems like something they would have kept up if there was participation

 

[Lady Storm]

I am glad people were able to come quickly to your need for an answer to your question. As for a Classic shard in general the Dev has given it final answer in this question. No classic shard as the ability to do so has been lost. Welcome back !

Petra best to lock this up before we have a cascade run on this subject.

 

[Tanivar]

While I heavily favor a UO:Ren Shard, a pre-Ren actual Classic Shard style shard could one day appear. Just taking the Fel Ruleset and changing the combat formulas so any resist numbers involved with an item or monster roughly average out and removing the Resist numbers so the items wouldn't display them would be a big move in the right direction. Then take the new skills off the skills lists we have the option of choosing from.

That would leave the new lands on the shard. Any monsters or items added by the Dev Team would automatically appear 'Classic' since the combat formula & display changes would adapt them to the new shards classic flavor, and if this shard proved popular, the Dev Team might decide to do more changes over time to make it closer and closer to an actual 'Classic' shard. If it drew enough customers paying monthly fees, it might be considered worth the man-hours to do more work on it.

There are two 1000 plus posting threads on the topic of a Classic Shard somewhere way back in the old threads list. The main problem it showed was that very many of those involved in the threads insisted the shard had to be *just*this*exact*and*they*meant*Just*this*exact*way or it wasn't a true Classic Shard and they wouldn't play it. That attitude was probably a big factor in the discussions on making a classic shard.

If the posters in those two huge threads had been willing to accept anything pre-Ren as a Classic Shard, it might have tipped the balance on the Classic Shard decision in favor of doing one.

If a Classic Shard had come into being, it would have made the possibility of getting a pre-AoS Ren shard as well, much more likely. Which is what I want to see available.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Classic shard is not currently considered to be a workable option, as such this is considered to be a closed topic for the forseeable future.