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(Player News) Endless Journey players WILL be allowed to create a Siege character

Silent Singer

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With all due respect to Holden, I thought it might be a good idea to start a second post with the updated information for those folks who just skim the headlines. According to today's newsletter, the dev team has changed its course and EJ accounts will be allowed on Siege. I'm not expressing an opinion that this is good or bad, just highlighting it for all concerned.
 

Symma

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Doesn't really bother me. Honestly, I don't expect loads of players using Endless Journey to come to Siege. But it would be nice if this catches a few older players and gets them back in.
 

Nirot

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Hmm,... the newsletter says EJ are allowed to log in to Siege. - But it doesn´t saying that they can create a character.

I really hope only those who already have a character can log in to Siege. - Otherwise we will see 100s of mining scripters popping up.
 

Lord Frodo

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Doesn't really bother me. Honestly, I don't expect loads of players using Endless Journey to come to Siege. But it would be nice if this catches a few older players and gets them back in.
What you will see is your current player base open up old accounts under EJ. EJ benifit the current paying player base than any returning vet or a NEW player with no advertisement.
 

Freelsy

Babbling Loonie
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I recently reconnected with an old guildmate from TO//SP guilds, Dante. He said he's interested and is going to see if his brother wants to start playing again. They think it's a great idea to open up free to play.... even with limitation
 

Tjalle

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How does it work on returning players with 120 skilled chars? Will their skills be capped at 100 during EJ?
 

Lord Frodo

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How does it work on returning players with 120 skilled chars? Will their skills be capped at 100 during EJ?
EJ Accounts are allowed to use PSs so why would they turn around and cap them.
 

Tjalle

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EJ Accounts are allowed to use PSs so why would they turn around and cap them.
Hmm, that´s true.
Somehow I was under the impression that skills were capped at 100 on EJ accounts as one of their restrictions. I must´ve misread something then.
 

Lord Frodo

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Hmm, that´s true.
Somehow I was under the impression that skills were capped at 100 on EJ accounts as one of their restrictions. I must´ve misread something then.
That was the 14 day trial account
 

Max Blackoak

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without access to their bank boxes I wonder how returning players are going to access their soulstones if they don't have them in their backpack... as far as I understood the devs are still thinking about the bank box restriction. might be something to consider
 

GarthGrey

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Doesn't really bother me. Honestly, I don't expect loads of players using Endless Journey to come to Siege. But it would be nice if this catches a few older players and gets them back in.
Like youself ? :p
 
What exactly is an Endless Journey account? I am thinking of returning if I can figure out the info on some of my accounts. Sorry. Been gone for almost ten years.
 

Kat

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without access to their bank boxes I wonder how returning players are going to access their soulstones if they don't have them in their backpack... as far as I understood the devs are still thinking about the bank box restriction. might be something to consider
Well, that sucks. EJ had me sort of wanting to come back and even patched a few minutes ago, but if I don't have access to my bank box, soul stones and gold, there's no point. Is there a suggestion thread somewhere?
 

Baby Doll

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I get where your coming from Kat on the free to play idea, but if people get access to bank box, soul stones, and gold why should I bother to pay monthly fee?
 

Kat

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I get where your coming from Kat on the free to play idea, but if people get access to bank box, soul stones, and gold why should I bother to pay monthly fee?
Well, I would rather them just go full on free 2 play, but that doesn't appear to be on the table at this time. However, how can a returning, vet, EJ player get along without his/her soul stones? I'm not even sure my main character has a viable template at the moment, since I was working skills that do not fit into her Mage/Ninja/Tamer template. So, I dunno what the answers are to make EJ work, but the character has to be playable. The housing limitations may be enough of a balance. Also, players will not gain account age that goes toward vet rewards. I think removing the ability to pick vet rewards, if the player has remaining choices, might be another balancing option. I think there are some other options that will keep EJ balanced that will not affect skills and bank boxes.

Personally, I prefer to see them go free 2 play and then utilize The Ultima Store and let players purchase more tokens, in game items [hitching posts, mailboxes, all past deco items that can no longer be obtained, new easter, christmas, halloween etc., items] , upgrades and maybe even gold, to make their money! Players LOVE pixel crack!!! Anyway, that's how other unmentionable places make their money. You can even buy skills for cash. I think they would make far more money with that business model.
 

Baby Doll

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All valid points Kat and no disrespect intended. Speaking for myself, If Broadsword /UO does what you spoke of, I will drop my two accounts, sell both my Yew gate house and New Magincia plot. Move my gear into Sprago's castle or Abyss house. I would not buy even one soulstone more ever. Why because I would create 1- 50 free to play accounts, friend em all to one house for restocking. And be good to go, till game dies!
 

Kat

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All valid points Kat and no disrespect intended. Speaking for myself, If Broadsword /UO does what you spoke of, I will drop my two accounts, sell both my Yew gate house and New Magincia plot. Move my gear into Sprago's castle or Abyss house. I would not buy even one soulstone more ever. Why because I would create 1- 50 free to play accounts, friend em all to one house for restocking. And be good to go, till game dies!
I meant that I would like to see UO move away from subscriptions to free 2 play for EVERYONE.
 

Archnight

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I meant that I would like to see UO move away from subscriptions to free 2 play for EVERYONE
Unfortunately that would be the end of our lovely game... I hope EJ will however allow returning vets with access to their bank box and maybe limit their storage to 25 items with a weight limit. This way items can be taken out but not back unless it's 25 or under with set weight, these limitations are key to avoid abuse and potential loss in revenue
 

Kat

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Unfortunately that would be the end of our lovely game... I hope EJ will however allow returning vets with access to their bank box and maybe limit their storage to 25 items with a weight limit. This way items can be taken out but not back unless it's 25 or under with set weight, these limitations are key to avoid abuse and potential loss in revenue
I would need full bank access. My bank is full, my backpack is full and the beetle I am riding is full. I also just read that I would not be able to enter any houses that are not public and since I play Siege, that isn't going to be possible. So, as is, I will not be returning at all.
 

Baby Doll

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I meant that I would like to see UO move away from subscriptions to free 2 play for EVERYONE.




Okay free 2 play for everyone. So now I could create endless accounts, bide my time and own all of Luna or New Magincia. Get endless, vet rewards, gift tokens, votes for city government, etc. As for private verses public, again no problem open house to public, set teleports to friend or above.
 

Kat

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Okay free 2 play for everyone. So now I could create endless accounts, bide my time and own all of Luna or New Magincia. Get endless, vet rewards, gift tokens, votes for city government, etc. As for private verses public, again no problem open house to public, set teleports to friend or above.
Baby Doll, obviously there would need to be some limits and changes. Just forget it. As is, I won't be able to come back, so there isn't much point in my participating in this discussion any longer. Carry on.
 

Tanager

Sage
Stratics Veteran
EJ have access to their gold. When they say ''bank'' the balance window is what pops up, so they can move gold around from secure, etc. Depositing gold is a bit of a chore since they have to physically go to a bank to click a button and target a stack of coin in their pack. (They cannot use bag/chest of sending or use a vendor as a gold unloading station.)

They are talking about ways for storage, it just won't be right away. I think there is so much concern over people abusing EJ that they are starting off with massive restrictions.

I don't know how stratics feels about linking to other sites or forums, so I won't. But there are several threads on the official UO forums (down in customer service is where the categories are for TC1, which is where EJ is now) where you can make suggestions.

Until they get something worked out for withdrawing storage concerning older vet accounts, maybe you could consider starting a new character just to have some fun :) You'd have access to your main account's equipped gear, pack and beetle contents to borrow from to get a head start. For additional storage, just make another free account and use that one's pack and beetle. The loss of SS sucks, but it does not mean you cannot have fun with UO and visit old friends and make new ones. OR you could make a small investment in your existing account by subscribing for a month, clear out your bank, then wait another 3 months to qualify for EJ again. In the meantime, play a new char.
 

SpyderBite

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EJ have access to their gold. When they say ''bank'' the balance window is what pops up, so they can move gold around from secure, etc. Depositing gold is a bit of a chore since they have to physically go to a bank to click a button and target a stack of coin in their pack. (They cannot use bag/chest of sending or use a vendor as a gold unloading station.)

They are talking about ways for storage, it just won't be right away. I think there is so much concern over people abusing EJ that they are starting off with massive restrictions.

I don't know how stratics feels about linking to other sites or forums, so I won't. But there are several threads on the official UO forums (down in customer service is where the categories are for TC1, which is where EJ is now) where you can make suggestions.

Until they get something worked out for withdrawing storage concerning older vet accounts, maybe you could consider starting a new character just to have some fun :) You'd have access to your main account's equipped gear, pack and beetle contents to borrow from to get a head start. For additional storage, just make another free account and use that one's pack and beetle. The loss of SS sucks, but it does not mean you cannot have fun with UO and visit old friends and make new ones. OR you could make a small investment in your existing account by subscribing for a month, clear out your bank, then wait another 3 months to qualify for EJ again. In the meantime, play a new char.
So they'll be hauling stacks of coin to the bank, eh?

I'm beginning to warm up to this idea!



Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 

Tanager

Sage
Stratics Veteran
I can see bank-slot tokens (very similar to stable tokens) being sold to unlock bank storage in chunks, per character, up to a certain cap (but less than subscribers have, so there is still incentive to subscribe). I wish the stable tokens could be bought by one person and then traded to another char. (As it is, one can buy/sell a 500 sov code to get around that.)

I would also like to see an in-game, trade-able item that serves as an account time code.

There are people now who rarely if ever pay for their UO time. They farm gold/items and buy codes from trusted sources (and EA still gets the money). That cooldown between an account going inactive and qualifying for EJ is crippling. Perhaps one day they can be an account check when it lapses - if it has no house, no vendors, whatever it needs to qualify, then it can go immediately into EJ status. This way, there could be a huge boost in GTC sales as EJ play for free until they have enough in-game gold to treat themselves to an occasional month of full status. (Instead of NEVER subscribing.)

However, even as it stands now, it would not be so difficult to just make a few relatively small investments in a couple EJ accounts. Subscribe one for that extra nice holiday treat, if the only prerequisite is an active account and a char that is 30+ (presumably subscribed) days old. Set up some vendors for a month, have full access to farming resources, etc. Then play on the other EJ to get gold for another code while the first waits for EJ status again. This tactic benefits the player as well as EA, who gets revenue they would otherwise not see but still allows a F2P to play/farm at their own pace without the deadline of the game becoming inaccessible in order to do so. Heck, they could even maintain a house if their EJ account could consistently drum up the funds before IDOC, and just let the other one never be EJ. That is no different than the folks now who only pay every few months to keep a house.

I can think of a LOT of ways to really enjoy UO by using an EJ account, even with the existing restrictions. Even if an EJ never subscribes or buys something from the store (and personally, I think many WILL do one or both at times), they still help UO. PKs and PvPers have more targets, RPers have more audience and peers, Merchants have a larger market, etc. All of which makes the subscribers want to keep subscribing.
 

Tanager

Sage
Stratics Veteran
I get people who say "well if they do this.................... and then they follow with this" discussions, but look at past 20 year record, while the powers that be have made made many alterations to this game. Sometimes they don't fix issues, just move on. Example factions, instead of fixing lil problems, they went with lets scrap factions and put in VvV. I would guess EJ will still have many issues when it roll's out to all shards. An Siege won't matter till prodo shards have been solved. So what ever they serve up to Siege, fixes won't happen for months if ever to any special needs.
Which is why my thoughts tend to run along the lines of ''even if it stays the way it is for a long time or forever''. I prefer to encourage the brainstorming of ways to work with what is available. Ideas are a good thing, and if every now and then an idea leads to an improvement, then great! They have already made changes to the original list of EJ restrictions based on feedback from US, the players, and I believe they will continue to do so.

I have been convinced for years that UO would eventually have to go F2P in order to compete with the hundreds (thousands) of MMOs, console games, and even browser games. Heck, even those silly lil app games on iPhones are sucking up potential gamers (and their money). UO is better off trying to attract a little bit of time (and money) from a lot people rather than sticking to the failing system of a larger subscription fee from an ever dwindling group of people.

People are constantly criticizing our devs, and I agree - they are not perfect. But UO is basically a niche game with a handful of devs, some GMs and EMs, some folks who write the official UO wiki, and now some forum moderators. For all I know, some of those people are volunteers. The list of talented folks who want to work for a 20 year old MMO is not getting longer. So yes... maybe things could be done with better PR, and maybe things could be tested more before launch. But UO is not Blizzard, and it does not have Blizzard's resources. I just do not see the point in bashing the people who keep this game alive. For better or for worse, this is what we have to work with, warts and all.

This is UO, so yeah - EJ is not going to launch perfectly. Changes might be a bit slow to come, and at least some of those changes will almost certainly backfire. I expect scripters, bug exploits, griefers, and scammers. But I strongly believe that this is a turning point for UO... one way or another. So I am going to do my best to help those new and returning players get the most out of EJ, no matter how good or bad it's done. And I am going to do my best to keep offering positive, constructive ideas.

I'm sorry if this post comes off a bit strong, but it's because I managed to resist posting in a thread on UHall. o.0
 
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