Diminishing Population of Ultima Online.

[Dorinda]

This post is an observation of the lack of players in fel. (Except for Atlantic) The majority of all North American shards lack enough players to fight. Some players waste countless hours of time scouting through dungeons and t2a to not find a single person. Where did everyone go? Have the remaining players, that have not quit the game, migrated to Atlantic to fight as a blue at yew gate?
Does Ultima Online have a plan to bring back veteran players to the game, or atleast advertise for new players?

 

[Martell]

This post is an observation of the lack of players in fel. (Except for Atlantic) The majority of all North American shards lack enough players to fight. Some players waste countless hours of time scouting through dungeons and t2a to not find a single person. Where did everyone go? Have the remaining players, that have not quit the game, migrated to Atlantic to fight as a blue at yew gate?
Does Ultima Online have a plan to bring back veteran players to the game, or atleast advertise for new players?

This has been brought up countless times. Yes the population is rapidly dwindling, especially in fel. Yes the remaining pvp population is centered entirely around atlantic, and yes there are probably less than 40 consistent pvpers left in the game, yes even on atlantic there are times when Yew and spawns are completely dead. No EA and the UO dev team don't have much of an idea on how to fix/reverse this problem; they're clearly not advertising the game nor is it accessible to new players (as the economy on the only populated shard, atlantic, is so out of whack due to inflation), they're ever increasingly making the game more complex and item and grinding based, and the few attempts that have been made to fix and improve the fel/pvp community (ie. faction changes) were so poorly thought out/tested/bugged that they've apparently just given up on introducing a new fel system (it also hurts that none of the Devs pvp). If you're looking for PVP, or a large active community, you shouldn't be looking to prodo servers. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

 

[Symma]

More people should try Siege... No place to hide from pvp. And the more people that try, the more people there will be to kill. And hey, you can now use advanced and mythic character tokens!!!!!

Wishful thinking I know.

 

[Penana Car]

They should put up a straight up AoS shard, it would dwarf Atlantic's population at its current peak. People would re-subscribe just to play. Not asking for a "classic" shard. Just AoS as one of its last builds. You may have some nonsense response about how it's in the past but a smart business person wouldn't even ask questions, they'd do it in a heartbeat.

 

[Goodmann]

They should put up a straight up AoS shard, it would dwarf Atlantic's population at its current peak. People would re-subscribe just to play. Not asking for a "classic" shard. Just AoS as one of its last builds. You may have some nonsense response about how it's in the past but a smart business person wouldn't even ask questions, they'd do it in a heartbeat.

noone would play sorry

 

[Uvtha]

They should put up a straight up AoS shard, it would dwarf Atlantic's population at its current peak. People would re-subscribe just to play. Not asking for a "classic" shard. Just AoS as one of its last builds. You may have some nonsense response about how it's in the past but a smart business person wouldn't even ask questions, they'd do it in a heartbeat.

Bringing back one of the most reviled periods of the game would draw in old players? It makes no sense. The game is basically AOS now, except with years of needed balance.

 

[Eärendil]

there are probably less than 40 consistent pvpers left in the game, yes even on atlantic there are times when Yew and spawns are completely dead

Yeeehaaaw!

 

[startle]

I agree with pretty much everything said so far.... Having said that, I am cautiously hopeful that the recent communications with the devs points to a more positive environment for all of us here on UOStratics....

 

[lancelot99]

Try Europa... Even the Tram side is like a Ghost town most of the time

 

[Pinco]

This post is an observation of the lack of players in fel. (Except for Atlantic) The majority of all North American shards lack enough players to fight. Some players waste countless hours of time scouting through dungeons and t2a to not find a single person. Where did everyone go? Have the remaining players, that have not quit the game, migrated to Atlantic to fight as a blue at yew gate?
Does Ultima Online have a plan to bring back veteran players to the game, or atleast advertise for new players?

If they start with improving the game graphic probably more people will come... but right now the quality/price comparison shows the game is too expensive for what you really have.
So the only way to bring back people (other than improving the graphics) is reduce the monthly price by at least 60%... 4-5€/month would be a more than fair price for this game...

 

[DJAd]

I wasen't around when they tested out Kingdom Reborn, did they re-do all the grapics or was it only some things?

Can't it be rolled out slowly, even bit by bit?

 

[Daelomin]

I will comment on the dimmining population in Felucca as I am a PvP:er myself.

The PvP/Felucca elements of UO is in a vicious circle at the moment. The less people who play to PvP the the less inspiring the game style becomes. If we would see a short term increase in people playing, the problem could be slightly sorted itself.
Today its like... People log in... no action anywhere... people log out and tell their friends: "No action, its dead"
The power of "word to mouth" is huge.


The foundations in UO are very good - I do think the so called veterans agree on this and like the game style, but there are very few incentives to "compete" for veterans.

The Incentives to PvP
If there was a fun and rewarding incentive to play in Felucca, I believe we would have one of the things we need - a short term increase in PvP:ing players.

Two systems that I think made things really interesting for PvP:ers are:

- The old Faction leaderboards (before they changed it, got out of control). People love to compete and a leaderboards will be a good method to compare skill factor.
- The Champion Spawn System (Quite unique system which was a very thoughtful addition)

One system to measure some kind of skill factor and another for rewarding items/rewards.

Both these systems are no longer an incentive, because players think they are outdated or badly designed.

We need a new system that inspire players to compete

The failure to lure new players
In a long standing game like UO, it is obvious that we will need to replace quiting veterans with new players.

If I were a new player, I would feel like a mountain to climb in order to start PvP:ing. I would be repelled away by the requirement of high end items, powerscrolls, pets etc (which some are not even obtainable anymore).
Limited items like Conjurers Garb, Dread War Horses, Ranger`s Cloak Of Augmentation etc to name a few does not help new players. All items should be obtainable at any time.

When I started playing, the only things that differed each PvPer was the template skills and the real skill factor/knowledge of the game.
Knowing the timing of spells was more important than mixing the properties of armor.

The increase of complexity might be an incentive for a veteran player - but it does not make things inspiring for new PvP:ers. There is no balance here atm.

I do understand that the game can not remain static and evolution is needed, but bringing in highend stuff is the wrong way to go to be honest.

PvP is hard for the casual gamer - Simplicity combined with skill factor is needed

Mindset of Felucca today
If a Player would like to try out PvP and go to Felucca there is a good chance he/she will be jumped by a red player...
Today PvP is very much related to reds vs blues. If you are a blue you can quite easily be killed once you enter fel and step outside guard zone. There are no penalties for being a red, and among the few people left in Felucca, the reds are no longer a minority.

When Statloss was active - I do believe that the Felucca mindset was much more balanced and appealing for new players. The reds were a minority which had much more respect because it took extra "skill" to play with the consequences of statloss. At the time, Order/Chaos and Factions was the systems to start PvP:ing.
You could live in Felucca and actively choose to participate in PvP or live your life as a blue with the risk of a random encouters of reds.

Removing the statloss sounded very exciting when it was first announced, but it was very bad step, as the system created a balance.

There should be a penalty for being red in order to create "some" balance.

The reds who disagree on this one will only have reds to kill when this game is dancing on the ledge....

 

[G.v.P]

At this point, not even Evony ads could save UO .

But hey, a vendor search would be a home run.

 

[Pinco]

At this point, not even Evony ads could save UO .

But hey, a vendor search would be a home run.

a vendor search will just legalize what already exist...

 

[G.v.P]

An external website is a far cry from what an in-game search would provide, assuming EA would create a true in-game search. The illegal sites cater the rich and cover specific regions as a result. Ideally, an in-game search would allow anyone who owns a home to profit. I guess the question is how will they determine coordinates. Maybe drop a map in your backpack, or better yet a direct rune, haha.

 

[cazador]

Honestly I play on chessy a "dead" shard and the last few weeks there has been some big fights 10-15v10-15 and these are 1-2 hr long fights for spawns..people are still here just no reason to fight anymore

 

[Tzadkiel]

Deja Vu all over again. I think Martell and I discussed this just yesterday. Kill a player what do you get....a count, some pots, petals, and a trap box. Whoopieeee, rinse repeat. Oh then you run to general and rave at how much the opponent was the fail sauce if you have the maturity level of a pinto bean. Crap. gotta stop those third party unmentionable programs development ignores (YES, people cheat!...who knew right?). Sec.....ok, now I can smack talk again

 

[DevilsOwn]

Deja Vu all over again. I think Martell and I discussed this just yesterday. Kill a player what do you get....a count, some pots, petals, and a trap box. Whoopieeee, rinse repeat. Oh then you run to general and rave at how much the opponent was the fail sauce if you have the maturity level of a pinto bean. Crap. gotta stop those third party unmentionable programs development ignores (YES, people cheat!...who knew right?). Sec.....ok, now I can smack talk again

isn't much around here that makes me chuckle anymore, but that did

 

[Joey Porter]

Personally I think insurance is a huge reason PvP sucks now. Back in the day if you killed someone you got to loot all there good stuff. There was a def chance at a good reward. Now there is nothing.

 

[Martell]

I will comment on the dimmining population in Felucca as I am a PvP:er myself.

The PvP/Felucca elements of UO is in a vicious circle at the moment. The less people who play to PvP the the less inspiring the game style becomes. If we would see a short term increase in people playing, the problem could be slightly sorted itself.
Today its like... People log in... no action anywhere... people log out and tell their friends: "No action, its dead"
The power of "word to mouth" is huge.


The foundations in UO are very good - I do think the so called veterans agree on this and like the game style, but there are very few incentives to "compete" for veterans.

The Incentives to PvP
If there was a fun and rewarding incentive to play in Felucca, I believe we would have one of the things we need - a short term increase in PvP:ing players.

Two systems that I think made things really interesting for PvP:ers are:

- The old Faction leaderboards (before they changed it, got out of control). People love to compete and a leaderboards will be a good method to compare skill factor.
- The Champion Spawn System (Quite unique system which was a very thoughtful addition)

One system to measure some kind of skill factor and another for rewarding items/rewards.

Both these systems are no longer an incentive, because players think they are outdated or badly designed.

We need a new system that inspire players to compete

The failure to lure new players
In a long standing game like UO, it is obvious that we will need to replace quiting veterans with new players.

If I were a new player, I would feel like a mountain to climb in order to start PvP:ing. I would be repelled away by the requirement of high end items, powerscrolls, pets etc (which some are not even obtainable anymore).
Limited items like Conjurers Garb, Dread War Horses, Ranger`s Cloak Of Augmentation etc to name a few does not help new players. All items should be obtainable at any time.

When I started playing, the only things that differed each PvPer was the template skills and the real skill factor/knowledge of the game.
Knowing the timing of spells was more important than mixing the properties of armor.

The increase of complexity might be an incentive for a veteran player - but it does not make things inspiring for new PvP:ers. There is no balance here atm.

I do understand that the game can not remain static and evolution is needed, but bringing in highend stuff is the wrong way to go to be honest.

PvP is hard for the casual gamer - Simplicity combined with skill factor is needed

Mindset of Felucca today
If a Player would like to try out PvP and go to Felucca there is a good chance he/she will be jumped by a red player...
Today PvP is very much related to reds vs blues. If you are a blue you can quite easily be killed once you enter fel and step outside guard zone. There are no penalties for being a red, and among the few people left in Felucca, the reds are no longer a minority.

When Statloss was active - I do believe that the Felucca mindset was much more balanced and appealing for new players. The reds were a minority which had much more respect because it took extra "skill" to play with the consequences of statloss. At the time, Order/Chaos and Factions was the systems to start PvP:ing.
You could live in Felucca and actively choose to participate in PvP or live your life as a blue with the risk of a random encouters of reds.

Removing the statloss sounded very exciting when it was first announced, but it was very bad step, as the system created a balance.

There should be a penalty for being red in order to create "some" balance.

The reds who disagree on this one will only have reds to kill when this game is dancing on the ledge....

I completely disagree with just about everything you said (except for the need to draw in new people).
1.There doesn't need to be a reward system for PVP to be popular there simply needs to be a high, dynamic population. The problem most vets have with PVP today is that it is item based and one dimensional. With the the new expansion there are really only a few templates that are needed to be played, a mystic, a thrower, an archer, or a tamer (a good mystic should never lose to any other mage, there are too many extra buffs/healing methods, and too much damage output, a thrower puts out far more damage than other dexxers has more hci and needs only 2 weps to have the most desired specials, and a tamer is always gonna be better in a 1v1 unless they are god awful). Why do people play Halo or Call of Duty for hours on end? There's no reward it's just fun to fight people, the same is true for UO and it has far more potential than any xbox game. If the devs actually took time to PVP and simply added more content or changed up terrain PVP, or as I've said a million time ALLOWED FIGHTING IN FELLUCIA TOWNS (IE FIELDING, X-HEALING REDS, ETC.) PVP would be a lot more fun. The recent changes they made to SDI and Pure Mage classes was a small step forward but still fell short of the mark.
2. I don't think PVP today is at all about red vs blue (this is only true if you're a blue who all you do is stand at the Yew gate by yourself). A new person on there own may be limited to gate pvp but if they made an effort to grab a friend/ask someone to come explore fel with them, do a spawn or hunt in a dungeon then it wouldn't be about red vs blue it'd be about them vs. who ever tried to come and tried to take their spawn area or champ. But you're argument that you're going to get killed as a reason for new people not to PVP is ridiculous, of course you're gonna get killed YOU'RE NEW but who cares with item insurance these days you'll learn and get better and if you're smart you'll interact with the people there and ask for pointers or they'll offer pointers (I've helped numerous newbs that I've killed learn to pvp, and usually it's only those that keep coming back for more after I've killed them several times). PVP used to be the most popular aspect of this game, and that was when you'd lose EVERYTHING when you died, so I don't see how dying now would scare people off.
3. Penalizing reds at this point is stupid and pointless as Fel is so wide open anywhere besides Yew and Champ Spawns, but even then I run around Yew on a skillless blue (literally has like 50 skill points on them) sometimes just to see who's on and I'm never insta killed once outside of GZ (every now and then there's a stealther who gets me but what do I have to lose?). The penalty on reds in the past was because back in the day reds could actually loot you and hence needed to be discouraged, today not so much. Just because you're red doesn't mean you're some uber killing machine, I've seen lots of sampires kill awful reds at spawns and vice-versa. The inequality in PVP isn't based on red or blue it's based on items and templates.

Forgot to mention. If the Devs could learn to code and actually fix after 15yrs duping and cheating (by which I mean only speeders) that'd be nice too.

 

[Speaking the Truth]

^
You keep bringing up items. Everyone has access to equal items now with Imbuing.

I don't understand why you keep saying its item based and template based. It's still skill based.
I don't have any reforged items and I kill just about everyone. If your logic was true, people with reforged suits would beat me every time.

We should clear up the fact you get a nice bonus with reforging but its not going to make or break your pvping.

Also any template has the potential to beat any other assuming its in the hands of someone who knows the ins and outs.

 

[Picus at the office]

I think that the dev team needs to learn how to pvp. Even if they gave themselves limited god mode with 300 hps just so they didn't get smoked so fast it would at least open the door to some knowledge and insight. I'm still stunned with the negtive effect the limited faction changes had to PvP on smaller shards and, sadly, I have little faith that without playing the game IN ALL ASPECTS the team can improve upon it.

Nearly every side of UO can be brought back to lack of Dev game play and understanding of the grind: PVP, questing, plant growing, item collection and suit building, global/EM events, rare resource collection(wood etc) and what ever else you can add.

 

[Martell]

^
You keep bringing up items. Everyone has access to equal items now with Imbuing.

I don't understand why you keep saying its item based and template based. It's still skill based.
I don't have any reforged items and I kill just about everyone. If your logic was true, people with reforged suits would beat me every time.

We should clear up the fact you get a nice bonus with reforging but its not going to make or break your pvping.

Also any template has the potential to beat any other assuming its in the hands of someone who knows the ins and outs.

Conj Garb, Conj Trinket, Rangers Cloak, Shadow Cloak, are items some have mass loads of while others can't get. There are also those who stocked up on Val hammers when bribery came out, and those items go beyond imbuing. I'm not saying items make a PVPer but they certainly help and that's certainly a turn off to new and returning players. Me coming back for RTB and seeing everyone running with at the least 16hpr suits and learning that a said suit would cost 100+mil, in part due to a cape that doesn't spawn anymore, gave me a good reason to say f**k this.

You can say it's skill based all you want but me on a 30sdi swords/inscribe/mage has no way of killing a 14hpr/protection/myst mage. Nor would any mage class other than a myst mage really have any chance of taking a tamer on 1v1. I really only play mages now so I'm mostly only aware of mage templates but it's pretty clear that the mystic is more loaded on offense and defense than any of the other templates, and when it's combined with certain items/suits it's pretty unkillable by other templates. Hence skill being replaced by items and temps.

Further, items are becoming increasingly more complex so I'm sure a new player isn't gonna be thrilled by seeing highly customized pieces and then realizing they'd need 100+mil to equal that, learn how to simply grind/farm/script resources to make said pieces, or pay more RL cash for an enhancing tool from the store.

 

[Lynk]

I scouted every server except for baja and sonoma last night and the only thing going on was 30 blues rubbing it out in gz at yew gate.

No one plays the smaller servers beacuse faction suits vanished and no one wants to invest resources to suit up. can we have a server merge please?

Preemptive stfu for anyone who cries about housing.

 

[Picus at the office]

I scouted every server except for baja and sonoma last night and the only thing going on was 30 blues rubbing it out in gz at yew gate.

No one plays the smaller servers beacuse faction suits vanished and no one wants to invest resources to suit up. can we have a server merge please?

Preemptive stfu for anyone who cries about housing.

+1. While I'm not super keen on the shard merger I'd love to see something like that brief server with the arena. Though at this point I can't think of a good reason to dismiss shard mergers...execpt for my houses.

 

[phantus]

Good vs Evil =! PvP.

Create a real PvP system with real rewards and ditch the red/blue/gray sytem.

Not only would good systems draw in more pvpers but it would get rid of the us vs them pvp vs pvm mindset that has plagued the game since it started. Quit trying to make 2 games with 2 clients in a 15 year old game that doesn't appeal to the new generation.

 

[Madrid]

If they start with improving the game graphic probably more people will come... but right now the quality/price comparison shows the game is too expensive for what you really have.
So the only way to bring back people (other than improving the graphics) is reduce the monthly price by at least 60%... 4-5€/month would be a more than fair price for this game...

Pinco nailed it.

The game is empty because it looks like hell. It's very simple. What we're seeing is a decline of the current playerbase with no new players coming in. No one in their right mind is going to try UO the way it currently looks.

Until the issue of graphics is addressed all we're going to see is attrition.

 

[Speaking the Truth]

Conj Garb, Conj Trinket, Rangers Cloak, Shadow Cloak, are items some have mass loads of while others can't get. There are also those who stocked up on Val hammers when bribery came out, and those items go beyond imbuing. I'm not saying items make a PVPer but they certainly help and that's certainly a turn off to new and returning players. Me coming back for RTB and seeing everyone running with at the least 16hpr suits and learning that a said suit would cost 100+mil, in part due to a cape that doesn't spawn anymore, gave me a good reason to say f**k this.

You can say it's skill based all you want but me on a 30sdi swords/inscribe/mage has no way of killing a 14hpr/protection/myst mage. Nor would any mage class other than a myst mage really have any chance of taking a tamer on 1v1. I really only play mages now so I'm mostly only aware of mage templates but it's pretty clear that the mystic is more loaded on offense and defense than any of the other templates, and when it's combined with certain items/suits it's pretty unkillable by other templates. Hence skill being replaced by items and temps.

Further, items are becoming increasingly more complex so I'm sure a new player isn't gonna be thrilled by seeing highly customized pieces and then realizing they'd need 100+mil to equal that, learn how to simply grind/farm/script resources to make said pieces, or pay more RL cash for an enhancing tool from the store.

I play too many servers to have that stuff on every single char. My typical suits don't have a single thing you've mentioned so I can tell you from experience
that you don't need any of those items you've mentioned. Are they nice? Sure. Do you NEED them? No, not at all.

It is skill based. Nothing you mentioned in your sdi mage vs a mystic has anything to do with items. That's a template issue. Also you just need to be more creative than your enemy. Oh they went in prot and stoneform? Invest in a 3k talisman of ward removal. Or mana vamp them first till they have nothing, THEN ward removal.

Tamers are also not that powerful. There is a reason you don't see a whole lot of them these days. The pets aren't as strong as they use to be, plus you leave yourself pretty vulnerable when you get off your pet. Again against a skilled player, a tamer is not that big of a deal. The only time they are some what effective is in an inclosed area. Then again last time I checked yew gate is a rather large open area, and same with most spawns.

Again as I said you don't need those items so you don't need a suit that costs 100mil or more.

 

[Kas Althume]

* The graphic is crap when it comes to luring new players in.
* Noone except for the us oldies even knows the game exists.
* pvp is waaaaaaaaaaay to complicated. I used to pvp but nowadays there are so many properties that i can't be arsed to bother with it anymore. I prefered the simply pvp with a plain armor and reagents in my pack. Can you even imagine explaining a new player what he has to get (item wise) to have even a slightest chance?
* way too much grinding as of late

 

[Dorinda]

The faction system for obtaining armor through silver every month is flawed. On the smaller servers a player would spend a majority of their time grinding for silver to buy the faction artifacts, since there is no way to obtain and hold the highest rank of 10 because of the small population and the rapid decay of points. The grinding effort would be a continuous effort every month.
Maybe the developers should have designed the faction system to reflect a macro view of the problem instead of implementing ideas that defeated the whole purpose in the first place. The factions system implemented today would have probably been a good system in 2008, when the population was still relatively high on every server.

 

[puni666]

This post is an observation of the lack of players in fel. (Except for Atlantic) The majority of all North American shards lack enough players to fight. Some players waste countless hours of time scouting through dungeons and t2a to not find a single person. Where did everyone go? Have the remaining players, that have not quit the game, migrated to Atlantic to fight as a blue at yew gate?
Does Ultima Online have a plan to bring back veteran players to the game, or atleast advertise for new players?

Over simplification of the game (pvp wise) destroyed the unique game play we once had. They threw in Mysticism with no knowledge of how it would effect the pvp community. Pvm yeah it's great! But taking out the skill of personal survival ability and replacing it with a cleansing winds spam paired with stone form was idiotic. Where's the fun in fighting turtles? Before mysticism was almost perfect. Things were going on the right track. Ninja's, Mages, Dexers were all pretty much on par with one another. Then came along another massive imbalance. The tram player base is expanding though! We're the casualties.. and by the title of this thread it isn't many of us. Who knows though.. It looks like who ever is checking the bug forum actually gives a crap finally. Maybe the metal/leather armor issue is the first of many things they'll recheck and balance more thoroughly.

 

[MalagAste]

Lets face it people who play WoW and all the others look at UO and LOL... the Graphics are from the 80's seriuosly...

Secondly they tried putting incentives to PvP... it was called Powerscrolls... What that did was make a very few people VERY wealthy IRL... further destroying the fragile economy of UO... Creating a greed that has not been satisfied... and making many folk cheat and hack and otherwise use unscrupulous means to get what they wanted... and fill their Greed.

Now... most folk are saturated with Powerscrolls, those that don't have them or are just returning to the game can't afford them and aren't buying,..... they added the binders making it harder for folk to find 110 and 115 scrolls they can afford... also they horde scrolls to bind them so they can sell the 120's at an inflated rate.

Add in the fact that there has been a lack of balance in PvP as well as the entire BS with Factions and what-not and that there are now DOZENS of other MMORPG's on the market now and it's a wonder anyone is still playing UO at all.

As it is most folk don't care to do much in Fel... most shards have a Zerg guild that pretty much holds a strangle hold on the shard and anyone NOT in the guild pretty much doesn't bother with fel.... Why would they.... I'm sorry but 6 or 10 on 1 on or 2 isn't really a challenge it can barely be called PvP and it isn't fun, entertaining or exciting... it's boring if you are in the Zerg guild since whooo you rolled up on 1 or 2 people hit them once and it took you 10 min to get to .3 min fight... BORING.... and if you aren't in the Zerg guild someone rolls in and drops you in .3 seconds everytime you try to do anything in fel after the first time or two you might try to fight back but then it's like why bother...

Then lets look at Factions... with the amount of BS that goes on there you can't tell your enemies from your friends since half the time the "enemies" have characters in your Faction roll in using the runes and kill you from behind the lines anyway so it's hardly a battle at all and see the paragraph above about FUN and you'll see that most this is pointless and totally NOT fun...

The most fun I have with PvP has been either thru sparring 1vs1 small battles done in TRAM RP style.. where there is no looting... no trash talk and we are all friends when it's over. Pat eachother on the back nice fight lets do it again and move on...

And it's possible that all the trash talk that has moved into General Chat is enough to make folk want to retch everytime they think of Fel... I know I do... Most of us have passed the 3rd grade ages ago and don't care to revisit it in our time to "unwind" and relax.

I could keep on going..... lets talk about the Flavor of the Month Gimplate that everyone has to have to "compete" in Fel... Who wants to redo their character every other month when some new Gimplate comes out...

Suits are becoming more and more complicated to build and many folk don't want to spend 50 hours a week grinding out the things necessary to build a suit only to have the thing become obsolete when the new Gimplate of the Month arrives...


Need I continue?

 

[Heimi]

Yes, the graphics are obviously what keeps people playing WOW.

 

[flappy6]

i think most honest people are sick of tryin to fight the same people that have been speed hacking for the last decade, who wants to fight someone that can run from you when they get low but you cant run from them ........or theyll have the pot chuggin hack going on ,so you poison them and the pots auto cure them,same with apples......and countless other things , so let them play alone whole fel side

 

[lancelot99]

Although the graphics are a major problem, i see the main problem with Uo imho is the lack of events and in-game activities that people can take part in and feel like they are in a real living world. Lots to do in uo but the whole game feels static, occasionally you may get a dev to pull his/her finger out of their ass and create a world changing/story event that you can log into the game and take part in along with others on the shard - group play bringing people together, after all it is meant to be a mmo!
Guess i am tired of the world not changing, of being alone at navery or alone in shame/SA, with logging on and doing a peerless/champ that has no impact on the world or on your character. I want to make a difference in the world... to be a hero or a villain and be part of the UO world.

Was reading about the new game GW2 and they have a story mode on your char (or something) that writes your history and your deeds, telling people of your heroric victories or murders which adds a lot of roleplay/individuality and depth to your character rather that making a sampire or mystic/mage like everyone else on the shard with the same arties and armour mods.

 

[Lynk]

Lancelot your view of what is wrong with UO is way off.

Most people prefer the 2D graphics that play.

Events are held all the time.

There are so many properties available on armor with different color codings and varying intensities to reforging, that no two suits are the same.

 

[lancelot99]

"Most people prefer the 2D graphics that play"
I agree, i love the 90's baldurs gate style graphics but the population is small and decreasing - the objective is to attract new players not cater to the few hard core players who want to stifle progression to a graphically better game (like gw2) but keep what makes uo special.
"Events are held all the time"
What shard you on? i can tell you on Europa we are lucky to get a 1 hr event a week (recently this has gotten better i'll admit) and sometimes weeks go by without any EM interaction.
" There are so many properties available on armor with different color codings and varying intensities to reforging, that no two suits are the same."
I walk around i see people with crimson/tangle/conj garb/trinket/mace shield glasses etc ... sampires with woodland armour - same items on everyone because it makes sense to wear them, no alternatives. only difference is colour .. (yes re-forging adds a little variety to the armour but still wearing the arties like everyone else)

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

UO has a declining player base because it isn't advertised (no, random barely-contextual mentions in random game blogs is not advertising. Especially when most of those mentions are in the past tense.)

UO isn't advertised because it is a hot mess. Well, okay, a lukewarm mess.

• 15 year old bugs
• ancient graphics
• a decrepit "main" client (CC)
• a barely-supported "modern" client with crappy graphics (EC)
• poor Dev/Player communication track record (possibly improving)
• piss-poor account management system that requires 3rd party help to navigate
• a multitude of unfinished, backburnered, or outright broken systems (Virtues, quests, etc)

Most of these issues are fixable. Mesanna said they would focus on bug fixes and hammer out at least half the 1173+ known bugs, hopefully that wasn't a hollow promise. There supposedly is the High Res update to look forward to, although not having seen even a single screenshot of an updated wall tile kinda puts that into question (if this was really being worked on, there should have been exemplars teased by now). Sadly, the clients are harder to nail down, but at least the major crash bugs in the EC seem to be being tackled. Communication appears to be improving, though it will take many months of weekly A&A's to repair the damage done by years of silence... The account management system needs to be made more UO friendly (UO graphics and such instead of just WAR and DAoC), possibly even something that thanks you for subscribing to the correct game *coughs*, and something to tell UO players about the need for _uo at the end of account names. Hopefully the list of the unfinished/backburnered systems doesn't get added to from what was in that last Producer's letter.

As far as PvP goes, this really isn't a system to draw in "new" players - as it is more of an "end game" activity when PvM has become uninteresting. However, PvP does deserve a good balance pass which should be heavily influenced by a Mythic-run player focus group of actual playing PvPers.

 

[claudia-fjp]

1) Powerscrolls are an outdated draw. My crafters have eaten +25 stat scrolls. So people beg to be raided which is pathetic.
2) The removal of the murder system with the introduction of pardons was a mistake, the accountability that was ingrained in the system is gone.
3) Cheating. Seriously fighting a guy on my Necro/Mage who is Flying as a gargoyle in Stone Form making him immune to Strangle, very resistant to poison and higher resists overall when he is supposed to be on the ground moving slowly is dumb. If you DO pvp legitimately and kill someone the first thing they do is call you a cheater.

 

[cazador]

I agree mysticism needs a good hard look..cleansing winds, protection stone form healing stones and potions...OP much? It's a simple fix add timers..if you use a healing stone you cannot use a potion for 45 seconds vice versa..in stone form cleansing winds are ineffective...give stone form a timer based on myst/focus or imbuing? Not for nothing but I'm not seeing complaints on how easy it Is to solo almost every champ spawn (boss)..but I digress that a different topic

 

[Martell]

I play too many servers to have that stuff on every single char. My typical suits don't have a single thing you've mentioned so I can tell you from experience
that you don't need any of those items you've mentioned. Are they nice? Sure. Do you NEED them? No, not at all.

It is skill based. Nothing you mentioned in your sdi mage vs a mystic has anything to do with items. That's a template issue. Also you just need to be more creative than your enemy. Oh they went in prot and stoneform? Invest in a 3k talisman of ward removal. Or mana vamp them first till they have nothing, THEN ward removal.

Tamers are also not that powerful. There is a reason you don't see a whole lot of them these days. The pets aren't as strong as they use to be, plus you leave yourself pretty vulnerable when you get off your pet. Again against a skilled player, a tamer is not that big of a deal. The only time they are some what effective is in an inclosed area. Then again last time I checked yew gate is a rather large open area, and same with most spawns.

Again as I said you don't need those items so you don't need a suit that costs 100mil or more.

1.) Who cares how many servers you have chars on when the only active one is Atlantic? I kill people on Sonoma with a suit that has stitchers mits and a pendant of magi but the people I'm killing are RPers who don't PVP. Point is when you're fighting other people that actually know what they're doing having decent gear matters.
2.) You originally stated that PVP isn't item OR template based it's all skill. It's clearly template based, hence why most everyone plays the same temps, and it's clear that mystic has huge advantages over others (like requiring everyone else to have a ward removal tali). Also if you don't have a decent suit mana vamp can drain your mana pretty darn quickly so spamming it on a prot guys doesn't alway work (especially if they have +resist jewlery specifically for protection). I also just think that having to use multiple talismans is stupid and further goes to illustrate the added complexity and item dependance of PVP (even if it's a cheap item). Lastly 14-18HPR suits are pretty reflexive of items giving huge advantage vs. those without.
3.) Tamers are still pretty powerful, Dismount + Speed Cu/Dreadmare is still pretty effective even in the open field,

 

[Martell]

i think most honest people are sick of tryin to fight the same people that have been speed hacking for the last decade, who wants to fight someone that can run from you when they get low but you cant run from them ........or theyll have the pot chuggin hack going on ,so you poison them and the pots auto cure them,same with apples......and countless other things , so let them play alone whole fel side

Pot chugging "hacks"= scripts (which are not hacks) and they're pretty useless in PVP (an auto apple script makes absolutely no sense, as it's on a timer, and doesn't exist). As I stated in a previous thread scripts aren't used in PVP nearly as much as people think because they act as a hinderance to anyone that knows what they're doing, they force the player to chug a potion, hit a box, etc. and thus interrupt whatever flow or maneuver the player was doing.
My cure pot macro= mouse wheel down, my box= mouse wheel up. It's pretty easy to activate these macros pretty instantaneously. Many people cry scripts but it's not I'm just not dumb and put essential macros in the most easily accessible place.
Speed Hacking= pretty annoying at times but not an endgame and not used as frequently as people think. They're the most satisfying people to kill too.
Further to make a generalization like "the majority of pvpers cheat" is extremely stupid and just not true. Chances are you're just awful at pvp/game mechanics and hence cry cheaters because you're losing.

 

[Speaking the Truth]

Lets face it people who play WoW and all the others look at UO and LOL... the Graphics are from the 80's seriuosly...

Secondly they tried putting incentives to PvP... it was called Powerscrolls... What that did was make a very few people VERY wealthy IRL... further destroying the fragile economy of UO... Creating a greed that has not been satisfied... and making many folk cheat and hack and otherwise use unscrupulous means to get what they wanted... and fill their Greed.

Now... most folk are saturated with Powerscrolls, those that don't have them or are just returning to the game can't afford them and aren't buying,..... they added the binders making it harder for folk to find 110 and 115 scrolls they can afford... also they horde scrolls to bind them so they can sell the 120's at an inflated rate.

Add in the fact that there has been a lack of balance in PvP as well as the entire BS with Factions and what-not and that there are now DOZENS of other MMORPG's on the market now and it's a wonder anyone is still playing UO at all.

As it is most folk don't care to do much in Fel... most shards have a Zerg guild that pretty much holds a strangle hold on the shard and anyone NOT in the guild pretty much doesn't bother with fel.... Why would they.... I'm sorry but 6 or 10 on 1 on or 2 isn't really a challenge it can barely be called PvP and it isn't fun, entertaining or exciting... it's boring if you are in the Zerg guild since whooo you rolled up on 1 or 2 people hit them once and it took you 10 min to get to .3 min fight... BORING.... and if you aren't in the Zerg guild someone rolls in and drops you in .3 seconds everytime you try to do anything in fel after the first time or two you might try to fight back but then it's like why bother...

Then lets look at Factions... with the amount of BS that goes on there you can't tell your enemies from your friends since half the time the "enemies" have characters in your Faction roll in using the runes and kill you from behind the lines anyway so it's hardly a battle at all and see the paragraph above about FUN and you'll see that most this is pointless and totally NOT fun...

The most fun I have with PvP has been either thru sparring 1vs1 small battles done in TRAM RP style.. where there is no looting... no trash talk and we are all friends when it's over. Pat eachother on the back nice fight lets do it again and move on...

And it's possible that all the trash talk that has moved into General Chat is enough to make folk want to retch everytime they think of Fel... I know I do... Most of us have passed the 3rd grade ages ago and don't care to revisit it in our time to "unwind" and relax.

I could keep on going..... lets talk about the Flavor of the Month Gimplate that everyone has to have to "compete" in Fel... Who wants to redo their character every other month when some new Gimplate comes out...

Suits are becoming more and more complicated to build and many folk don't want to spend 50 hours a week grinding out the things necessary to build a suit only to have the thing become obsolete when the new Gimplate of the Month arrives...


Need I continue?

I can't speak for everyone, but I personally like the above 2d look. I like the CC as it is.

Powerscrolls are cheaper than they ever been, so I don't know where you're getting that from.

What BS with factions? People crying it wasn't fair that people got 3 mr on an orny, or 2-3 in all the resist on the fey leggings?
People have been making excuses why they lost for years with factions as if they weren't allowed to join and it was only open to a select few people.

I think it's fun fighting those said zergs and beating them. More often than not zerg guilds lack any true skill and are easily defeated.
I have won countless 2v[insert number]. I know other people have as well. In fact that zerg mentality is what holds them back.
They get afraid to fight unless they have huge numbers on and they never improve. With there lack of getting better, then tend to lose easily.

If they have enemies in your faction, then someone is red one way or another. Kill said criminal. Not sure what the problem is there.

You can get those fights you love 1v1 at the arena.

If you hate general chat, you can leave it. It's a pretty simple fix.

What new template comes out every month? I don't think that I have missed all these new templates. Months and months have passed and
I have not seen something new over powered in a long time.

I'm using imbued suits and I have no problem in pvp. That almost sounds like complaining similar to those who cried about factions and never
joined to obtain the gear. You don't have to get reforged armor, to be honest what you get from it when it's all said and done isn't that crazy.
It can be slightly better than imbued but its not as if its 20x better. I don't have any reforged and am not complaining.

There is a lot of things you've complained about with an easy solution. Also there are things you've said that were really far off base.

 

[Speaking the Truth]

1.) Who cares how many servers you have chars on when the only active one is Atlantic? I kill people on Sonoma with a suit that has stitchers mits and a pendant of magi but the people I'm killing are RPers who don't PVP. Point is when you're fighting other people that actually know what they're doing having decent gear matters.
2.) You originally stated that PVP isn't item OR template based it's all skill. It's clearly template based, hence why most everyone plays the same temps, and it's clear that mystic has huge advantages over others (like requiring everyone else to have a ward removal tali). Also if you don't have a decent suit mana vamp can drain your mana pretty darn quickly so spamming it on a prot guys doesn't alway work (especially if they have +resist jewlery specifically for protection). I also just think that having to use multiple talismans is stupid and further goes to illustrate the added complexity and item dependance of PVP (even if it's a cheap item). Lastly 14-18HPR suits are pretty reflexive of items giving huge advantage vs. those without.
3.) Tamers are still pretty powerful, Dismount + Speed Cu/Dreadmare is still pretty effective even in the open field,

Well the reason I brought it up is because I can't afford all those items for every char since I have so many so I make the best I can without spending 100mil on a suit as you said was needed.

You stated that pvp is item based, I am saying it's skill based.

You then went on to complain about templates, which again is not an item. Last I checked you can't equip pvp ability.
You're acting as if there is no way around prot stoneform. When you were complaining about suits, you were talking about the high cost.
If 3k is too much for you to pick up a talisman, well that's your fault for being lazy and way too poor or cheap.

The only thing mystic has over powered is its heal, but 1v1 in a no rules fight, a necro will beat a mystic, hands down.

Again tamers are very vulnerable when they get off mount, if you know what you're doing you get a mage vs a tamer dexer in the arena
the mage will win.

 

[slayer888]

This post is an observation of the lack of players in fel. (Except for Atlantic) The majority of all North American shards lack enough players to fight. Some players waste countless hours of time scouting through dungeons and t2a to not find a single person. Where did everyone go? Have the remaining players, that have not quit the game, migrated to Atlantic to fight as a blue at yew gate?
Does Ultima Online have a plan to bring back veteran players to the game, or atleast advertise for new players?

Revamp factions under my ideas. PvP will increase and both UO Felucca and Trammel will be more fun. Period.

 

[CovenantX]

2.) You originally stated that PVP isn't item OR template based it's all skill. It's clearly template based, hence why most everyone plays the same temps, and it's clear that mystic has huge advantages over others (like requiring everyone else to have a ward removal tali). Also if you don't have a decent suit mana vamp can drain your mana pretty darn quickly so spamming it on a prot guys doesn't alway work (especially if they have +resist jewlery specifically for protection). I also just think that having to use multiple talismans is stupid and further goes to illustrate the added complexity and item dependance of PVP (even if it's a cheap item). Lastly 14-18HPR suits are pretty reflexive of items giving huge advantage vs. those without.

If you can't keep yourself alive against someone because they are able to spell-cycle you and keep you interrupted, it doesn't matter who has better equipment. the person who is better at pvp will inevitably win.
mistakes often make people lose in pvp as well, just depends on who makes more and who is able to take advantage of it.

I killed someone on my Naked Ninja-mage the only thing I had equip was a -20 mage weapon viking sword and my CC I had absolutely no way to heal myself... the guy I killed was in an SDI suit and was a necromancer of some sort (probably a peace-necro) I hit em with 6 deathstrikes while he was trying to get away. doing 18 damage a hit (no hiding/stealth), he could have killed me in 2 withers if he wasn't focused on running.

template & items help, but neither one will make you win.

Sure some things should be slightly tweaked to more balance things, but any template, can lose to any other template if the player knows how to beat it....

IMO the only things that really need "adjusting" would be...

Stoneform + Protection - shouldn't co-exist though it's possible to beat in a 1-v-1 situation on pretty much any character in groups it's nearly unstoppable and makes most big fights (harrowers) extremely boring
either remove protection when stoneform is casted/vice-versa, or enable stoneform to be poisoned...

Throwing - Weapons hit harder & faster than other weapon skills I wouldn't say this is so much OP against mage pvp, But against other forms of dexers there's no comparison.
Melee weapons should ALWAYS hit harder than ranged, while at the disadvantage of being hit by your opponent while in melee range... it only makes sense..

Poisoning - DP is fine, it shouldn't get cured easily by pots/consumables, I would like to see them remove the orange petal cure from poisoning, and just make the skill give an added bonus to the actual Orange petals (if it's that important)

Scribe - Casting focus - Remove it, just increase the casting focus cap for players that have Inscription to item cap + 5... opens room for more artifacts which will undoubtedly be added to the re-vamped dungeons anyway...

Pvp was amazing before some of these changes were made. I'm not saying these changes killed pvp, but they certainly didn't help it.

I would agree that these changes won't really appeal to the "new players" but ex-players are potential players coming back (especially now, during RTB) that might have left due to changes that ruined pvp for them..

I know spec toggling while casting spells caused some Pvper's to quit, and the same with making tactics a required skill for dexers to use special moves as well...
Why did this cause people to quit? I don't know for sure... but my guess would be : Because it reduces the amount of effective templates to choose from, thus making the game more linear...

 

[MalagAste]

I can't speak for everyone, but I personally like the above 2d look. I like the CC as it is.

Powerscrolls are cheaper than they ever been, so I don't know where you're getting that from.

What BS with factions? People crying it wasn't fair that people got 3 mr on an orny, or 2-3 in all the resist on the fey leggings?
People have been making excuses why they lost for years with factions as if they weren't allowed to join and it was only open to a select few people.

I think it's fun fighting those said zergs and beating them. More often than not zerg guilds lack any true skill and are easily defeated.
I have won countless 2v[insert number]. I know other people have as well. In fact that zerg mentality is what holds them back.
They get afraid to fight unless they have huge numbers on and they never improve. With there lack of getting better, then tend to lose easily.

If they have enemies in your faction, then someone is red one way or another. Kill said criminal. Not sure what the problem is there.

You can get those fights you love 1v1 at the arena.

If you hate general chat, you can leave it. It's a pretty simple fix.

What new template comes out every month? I don't think that I have missed all these new templates. Months and months have passed and
I have not seen something new over powered in a long time.

I'm using imbued suits and I have no problem in pvp. That almost sounds like complaining similar to those who cried about factions and never
joined to obtain the gear. You don't have to get reforged armor, to be honest what you get from it when it's all said and done isn't that crazy.
It can be slightly better than imbued but its not as if its 20x better. I don't have any reforged and am not complaining.

There is a lot of things you've complained about with an easy solution. Also there are things you've said that were really far off base.

The 2d client is holding UO back... It's killing it from any growth and until all you hold outs move on we will be kept in the dark ages of gaming.... infact I'll be surprised if UO lasts another year if the Graphics do NOT get improved. And I will say once again and I know this for a FACT most the gamers LAUGH at UO's Graphics.

Powerscrolls cheap?????? You can hardly even find them on my shard..... let alone find them cheap..... Unless you are talking about CRAP scrolls like Macing, Chivalry etc that you can't even give away...

BS with Factions... Since the wipe of points and the change to the point system and way of getting gear with the Silver thing most folk I know who used to use faction Arties don't anymore... Infact a large number of folk who used to be in factions and do factions quit ages ago.... Why because of lame fighting tactics, certain guilds making it difficult to be in the TB faction... and etc etc....

No it's not fun fighting the Zergs on my shard who all brag heavily about all the hacks and scripts they use.... they do it even in Global Chat.... nothing gets done about it... They even joke about the GM's never doing anything...

And it's not just one said person and they aren't red...

I could give 2 ..... about the Arena's most the folk on my shard cheat..... see above about scripting hackers.

As for suits a vast majority of my characters don't even have imbued stuff.... they don't even have all 70's... I was just pointing out at least a half a dozen or more of the arguments that I continually hear about why folk won't go to fel anymore, why they quit going to fel and why they quit UO...

I still play.... I'm not afraid to go to Fel... I don't do the Flavor of the Month Gimplate... I only a year ago made my first Sampire..... Just before they somewhat nerfed it...


I believe the OP wanted to know why the population in Fel is diminishing..... I gave at least a half a dozen or more reasons.... I did not say they were MY reasons.

 

[Picus of Napa]

Lots of good points raised here. I hope the dev team reads and tries to think of a way to add some of these back into the game.

Yes the 1997 graphics are weak compared to modern stuff but there are lots of much better looking games that have failed in the last 10 years, I do not think that the 2D issue is the problem though the 3D client should be worked on, the constant issue has been the lack of knowledge the team(s) has as it relates to direct game play.

Get out there and play the game your are directing, it is the only way to see how it works in a real day to day situation. You wouldn't expect a cook to know what the food is like unless he eats his own product, the same is for this.

 

[Theo_GL]

This post is an observation of the lack of players in fel. (Except for Atlantic) The majority of all North American shards lack enough players to fight. Some players waste countless hours of time scouting through dungeons and t2a to not find a single person. Where did everyone go? Have the remaining players, that have not quit the game, migrated to Atlantic to fight as a blue at yew gate?
Does Ultima Online have a plan to bring back veteran players to the game, or atleast advertise for new players?

Congrats. Your greifing and constant taunting and childishness has finally driven away people from fel. Is anyone surprised by this outcome??

 

[Dorinda]

lol