And the question now is where "back to the basics... before they ruined it." is.
To most posting of late, thats the PKland UO was before UO:Ren.
To me, "back to the basics... before they ruined it." is OU:Ren before UO was ruined by UO:AoS.
If the classic shard is going to have very many players, it has to draw, & keep, people who prefer playing the game as more than a moving target for PKers. Otherwise even the PKers will leave the classic shard because there's no easy targets and it's no fun for them. (Remembering my own fel experiences hearing the 'mighty warriors Barnry Bad****' or whatever, boasting about how tough & manly they are for killing an unarmed character with a crafting template. <spits in disgust>)
There has to be a Trammel, or some working method of keeping the PKers from driving the non-PvP players back to the AoS-tainted normal shards where they can have fun for thier money, not just be fun for the PKers.
How about having an 'ignore list' for PKers? The clowns can be put on your 'ignore PKer' list and he, and no other character on that account, can attack you anymore? The basic code could probably be pulled out of the Tram ruleset code. The only ones this would ruin the fun for are the rampant PKers.
PKland? Oh, really? What game were you playing? Because, I dont remember anything about a PKland. I remember Britannia and Ultima Online. But, no, sorry, PKland doesnt ring a bell.
See, this is the problem. People like this posting things like PKland and rampant PKing, and all of that other propaganda.
The truth is, the PKing wasnt as bad as so many of those who couldnt handle the PvP claim. Were there PK's? Yes. Did they rule every server and dominate without opposition? Absolutely not.
I mean, the ridiculousness of the claims of people has been astounding in regards to how the PvP situation was in pre-trammel years. People like you make it sound as if you couldnt take two steps outside of town without getting swarmed by packs of ravenous, homicidial, foaming at the mouth lunatics who were all but unstoppable and every town was under seige. That is so far from the truth, its unfathomable.
In all the time I spent playing pre-trammel, I only encountered one,
ONE large group of PKs, and that was in June of 1999 on Atlantic Shard. It was a group of 7 PKers in Deciet around the lich lord spawns. They were there attacking players who were recalling in to kill the Lich Lords. I went there with my Macer/lockpicker to kill the lichs and pick the chests for loot. I even remember EXACTLY what they looted. Yeah, I got ganked and lost a good silver power warhammer, a GM Iron Dex suit, a round metal shield, 50 lockpicks, 100 bandages, 30 fish steaks, 5 greater heal potions, 5 total refresh potions, and 5 cure potions. I had to run out of the dungeon, dead, and a mage who was willing to rez me. I didnt find a mage, but I found a GM healer who rezed me with bandages. Nice guy. Even lent me some recall scrolls and his Brit rune to get back to the mainland.
In Brit, I re-geared and announced to anyone who would listen there were 7 reds camping the lich lords in Deciet. I was overwhelemed by the response of the number of players who were willing to go there for the sole reason of killing those reds. Those reds soon found themselves out numbered by close to 15 other players, plus some others who joined in when the counter attack began. After the first skirmish the reds had either been killed and I think 2 of them managed to recall out. They came back with some red buddies of theirs and a small war erupted at the spawn. Blues vs Reds vs Lich Lords in a winner take all, battle royal. It was 18 on 17 plus about 4 or 5 Lich Lords getting their shots in.
The whole fight lasted about 10, maybe 15 minutes. Some of the best all across the board combat you could ever want. PvPvM. That was, by far, my most memorable time in UO. Ultimately, the reds were killed off and a few stragglers recalled out. I was among those who died in the fray, not before I took 3 of the reds with me. I got rezed by one of the mages who came with, looted my stuff off of my corpse, and someone even found and returned my silver/power warhammer to me (Easy enough since I was the only macer there).
It was incredible. The most immersive moment I have ever had in an MMO. No other has come even close to being able to provide an experience like that.
UO doesnt provide experiences like that anymore.
So, while naysayers cry phantom tales of total PK dominance, just remember the words of an old vet from long ago:
Reds did not dominate. Blue players fought back more often than you'd think and dominated more than the reds ever did. Most reds got that way by killing newbies and were actually weak cowards who died very quickly at the hands of an experienced player. Its reds like that who helped start the assumption that all PKs were griefers and wusses. I tell you now, they were not true PKs. We called them Ebolt fodder. It was always fun when Id put my red hunter on (GM Swords/tactic/parry/healing/archery/anatomy/resist spells), and find some creep harrasing miners or a lumberjack. A few smacks from my DP broadsword and they'd start running. Then I switch out to my heavy x bow and hunt them down through the woods. the damage from the bow plus the pulses from the poison and that red was dead before he knew what hit him. Id loot him, cut off his head, check the local bounty boards to see if he was on them. If he was on there, I turned in the head. If not, I got a new trophy.
There were Reds who were bad asses, the REAL PKs, but they were few and far apart and when you met them, it would be the fight of your life. They didnt bother with newbies, they wanted better prey. Guys like that were actually respectable. If you put up a good enough fight, they didnt even loot you. Some just took your head and moved on.
Some Reds worked for their guilds as assassins, going after specific targets who were either guildless, or were in a guild they werent at war with. There was actually politics behind the PvP. It wasnt all just random acts of violence.
It wasnt all glory and honor. There were moments that sucked big time. One time I was on my boat mining ore on the sea side of the mountains north of Minoc. Some guy came up on the gangplank of his ship and started taking the ore off of the deck of my ship. He boxed my boat in so I couldnt try to get away. The only option left to me was attack. I managed to beat him down, but he got in some good ebolts and flame strikes and I died. For some reason, he didnt loot my corpse, but he took the rest of the ore and said to me "Shouldn't have gotten nasty, pancake", then sailed away with several hours worth of work. I had to sail all the way back to Jeholm dead. My corpse disipated on the trip back and I was left with a boat I couldnt drop or get back onto. I lost my boat and all of my ore and the stuff on my corpse.
Was I angry? Hell yeah! Did I think to my self "This is total bull****!"? Most definitely. But the one thing I DIDNT do, was cry about it. I never called the guy a griefer, never complained on the forums, and I never whined to a Game Master.
You want to know what I did? I learned from the experience. It was after that I started carrying a bag full of explosion potions on my next boat along side my usual heavy crossbow. A few days later, I was back up at the seaside of the mountains mining. And who should come along but the guy who killed me and took my ore. He boxed me in....again..... and started to take the ore. "Just lay back, relax, let me do my thang and Ill let you go", he says.....pervert. I just typed in *grins* and started shooting at him with the heavy x-bow and chucking explosion pots onto his deck. The explosion pots helped interrupt his spells and the GM X-Bow was laying down some serious hurt on him. I kept myself healed and a minute later, he was dead.
It felt so good to say "Shouldnt have gotten nasty, pancake" to him. His OooOoOOOOOo's were like music to my ears......or eyes since it was all in text. He died close enough to the edge that I could go out on my gang plank and loot his corpse. To my surprise, he had several keys on him, all to boats he stole from other people. Even better, they were LOADED with ore. 4 boats whos holds was packed with ore.
I moved his boat out of the way so I could move mine out, took all of the ore off of his, got back on my boat, and left him there in the middle of the ocean. I made sure I double clicked the tillerman with the key to his boat on me so it would recognize me as captain so he couldnt steer it. Long story short, I cleaned out his storage boats, took them to dock, dropped them down to models, and stored them in my bank box.
Dont know what happened to Mr. Ore theif. Never saw him again after that.
Anyway, I could go on about all of the good and bad times I had in T2A. But I dont think the forum boards could hold them all.
So, Ill close it with this:
Dont believe Tanivar and the trammie propaganda. Listen to the words of the old vets who learned and thrived. Pre-Trammel wasnt a nightmare nor was it PKland. It most certainly wasnt a cake walk through the rose garden either. It was an era that challenged you to adapt and survive. And when you succeeded by GMing out that first skill, making your first 10k gold, placing your first house, completeing your first dungeon crawl, and earing the respect or fear of your fellow players, it made the moment all the sweeter.
If you want to feel that and experience that again, support a T2A (Pre-Ren) server and finally see what UO was truly meant to be.
