Fel and tram, trying to see what thy devs were trying to do...

[Sunrise]

well since the whole fel and tram has been I've been thinking of this.

The devs made tram to keep people playing thy game. This way I can go and hunt monsters and never lose my stuff. Hey that sounds good. make this game like every other online game out there that just hunts monsters.

The pvpers hated it and complained about it for years on end.

So the devs put in insurance. This way if another person or a monster killed you, all you had to do was get rezed and bam you got all your stuff, get healed again and get back in thy game.

Then everyone complained that there was no gold to be collected for the insurance.

So the devs made it TOTALLY easy to make gold for insurance.

Now we have a bunch of people with tons of gold, The best suits in the game...and STILL no one is happy. The pvpers are compaling that tram ruined thy game. The trams are tired of all the old pvpers saying how tram ruined the game etc etc.

So what would it take to make everyone happy? the devs have tried there best to do it. How does this sound? make it to when ya pvp you dont lose any gold. The only hard part is finding thy gate which is 2 screens away and then getting rezed and putting your stuff back on.

The pvpers will get thy honor of saying I had 24 kills tongiht alone. For thats how many people said I was a murderer. The trammies will be some exp in Pvping and everyone should be happy.

Now before any PVPERs say..hey we should get a reward for killing someone. ok you do. U get full insurance money for killing a red. Also you get the money from champs and power scrolls etc etc... seriously now. Are you pvping for gold..or for the kill? Most pvpers i know have tons of gold so it can't be that...

Discuss....

So devs what do you think of this?

 

[Faith]

The gold insurance messages make the kill shots that much better.

oh wait sorry, I meant 'thy gold'.

 

[Sunrise]

The gold insurance messages make the kill shots that much better.

oh wait sorry, I meant 'thy gold'.

LoL..aye I do say Thy alot. Need to stop that. shrugs.

Thy gold insurance does make it better. But on the other hand. Show me a pvper with less than a million gold? Do people want to PVP or do they just want easy gold?

 

[Erekose]

You are using the word 'thy' wrong

Other than that you're more or less correct

 

[Eslake]

Then everyone complained that there was no gold to be collected for the insurance.

So the devs made it TOTALLY easy to make gold for insurance.

You lost me there.
Gold on creatures has never been increased, only decreased.

It is aparent you weren't here prior to Trammel. As that far back, ordinary Lichs spawned in numbers in the Moonglow cemetary had much less health, and carried upwards of 900 gold each.
Not to mention that spellcasting creatures at that time didn't even cast on you until after they were wounded.

So picture a warrior with a silver vanq axe or halberd 1shotting lichs for 900g each all day and walking all of 3 screens away to bank the gold as they got overloaded.

Gold is no easier today then it ever was, it has just accumulated. If everyone were suddenly broke, and everyone had to earn their gold back up again, Barbed Runics would be selling for 25k and nobody could afford to place a house bigger than 7x7 until the end of the week.
(well the dupers could but that would be a sure way to find out who they were)

---
Oh yeah, What would make everyone happy?
If Tram and Fel were physically divided. You either play in one or the other.
Oh wait, they tried that with SP and look how populated it is. Nothing will ever please everyone.

 

[Silverbird]

If everyone were suddenly broke, and everyone had to earn their gold back up again, Barbed Runics would be selling for 25k and nobody could afford to place a house bigger than 7x7 until the end of the week.

Even on a fresh and clean shard you might be able to place a keep/castle on the first (two) days, if you can find any spot large enough to hold one. (The 'pros' would start to block castle-spots within the first hours until they have managed to collect enough money for one.) Personally I would probably start with inscription for that purpose. (Selling back scribed scrolls to the npcs.) Specialists would be faster. (Buying cloth and selling bandages to the npcs for example. That wouldnt lasst too long and would involve some running due to the lack of runes to the healers but you can make enough money for small-mid size plots within an hour.)
Without a char/skill-wipe I could make money faster. Hardest part would be to get an exceptional/runic earth elemental or gargolye slayer. Getting 50k+/hour is possible at shame 1 for example (with one hitting earth eles). (To count in ... I am wearing very simple equipment for that: except spined leather set and an except earth ele slayer. What really slows me down is the time needed for looting ... even with KR and right-clicking gold piles. As an additional note: i am keeping the gems for my tinkerer. So enough gold for a keep would be possible on a very intensive day of monster slaying.)

 

[Maplestone]

I like that PvP exists. I like that the option is there and that there are people who dance in both worlds. I like that there are some things one can't get in Tram (or at least can usually appreciate the feel).

But I don't PvP. Period. Axiom. No lure, no kindnesses, no threat, no safty net will change my mind. It's not about what I'd gain or lose ... it's about what's fun. I have nothing against PvPers (well, except the "delete Tram" trolls), it's just that my idea of a multiplayer community is playing with people, not against people. I don't need there to be evil in order to feel good. I don't need to be rich, I don't need to be powerful (although I do enjoy the illusion of ever-increasing wealth and power that comes of advancing slowly) ... I just need to have my imagination stimulated.

I think what makes people (of all playstyles) happy is to have options without feeling herded.

For me, UO is where I go to relax. I fish, I wander around looking for scenic spots, I fight harpies and trolls on low-end characters, occassionally pull out the elder characters for events from time to time, occassionally restock my shop with plain spellbooks and common wands and just try to find inspiration in the pixels around me to tell stories. As long as I can find peace and quiet when I need it, excitement when I need it and have the tools to shape the world around me a little without having to be in the top tier of power, I'll be happy.

Alas, we each see the game through a different eyes, we each sometimes believe we're right and the rest of the world is wrong, and we each wish more people saw the world our way. It's just the natural loneliness of a diverse society. The devs can't do anything about that - the more diversity of zones to play in, the more lonely we'll become, the more they try to standardize the game, the harder it becomes for each person to find their own unique vision of the land.

Perhaps if we just accepted that its an intractable problem with no utopia, we could let the devs focus on bringing as a diversity of options and the tools to create and build communities and communities of communities?

(well, at least that's how I see things these days ... I'll understand if other people see the situation through their own eyes )

 

[It Lives]

 

[Doomsday Dragon]

Things will never change. The best thing we ever had in this game was a pvp focus group but because it all had to be so secretive and someone blabbed poof it was gone and pvp balancing went with it. Hell the only reason pvp is half balanced now is because we actually had some input on the way it should go.

Trammel is not what ruined the game. Never adding anything new to fel from the day champs were put in until now is what ruined it. Who wants to go to fel other than to fight either just to fight and kill people or to fight over scrolls. That is all there is to do in fel.

The real solution is to finish balancing pvp either with a focus group of players giving input or without it needs done. Once that is done adding content to fel is what will bring everything back together. Adding content to tram at the same time may or may not be a good idea since the object is to bring players to fel.

And anyone who complains about insurance in todays game is either a whining you know what or a complete newb who shouldn't be in fel. Insurance is cheap stop whining...