Gave in to the nostalgia - Returning player - Have a few concerns.

[Dol'Gorath]

Hello everyone, the nostalgia called to me, and I decided to give UO a try again after a few years away from the game. I have played since 2001 and played around 19 years, finally deciding to call it around 2019 when I accidentally let my house fall which at that point it was over for me. Since that time, I have done other things with my life and gaming for the most part has been single player console/PC gaming. I would occasionally still check in on UO from time to time because this game will always have a place in my heart for all the great memories I have playing it. I may cross post this on both Stratics and the Official forums for those of you who read both, mainly in the hopes that Mesanna or a member of the team sees this feedback.

A week ago, I started a new account so I could have a fresh start. The first thing I noticed is that the new player tutorial no longer seems to be active. Previously, when you would start a new character in the EC you would start a new player tutorial quest that had a few special drops related to the quest [Like the skill tutor statue]. Was that quest removed intentionally or just bugged and not functioning? Not that I need the quest because I know what to do but this is a bad thing in the event an actual first timer wants to try the game and just gets dropped in with no tutorial. This should probably be fixed.

I am skilling up a tamer and making decent progress, will likely hit 80s by Monday, as always, Taming is painfully slow to skill up [Some things never change at least lol] I have been checking forums trying to see where the community is these days and looking for any guilds that may be recruiting. All the shard specific forums seem dead. Pretty much very shard forum on both Stratics and Official are just EM Event and UO Radio Spam. I am glad those are still going, but they do not inspire much confidence from an outside looking in and seeing this barren desert of discussion. Where do most players gather these days? Is there a discord for the official shards? If there is, it is not searchable on Discord, all you get for player run shard Discords.

I have always played on Atlantic and decided to roll on Atlantic, knowing full well this is the most populated shard and housing may be in short supply. Oh well, I know what I am getting in to. For being the most populated shard though, I do not see many people running around, so a bit discouraging but its also summer when numbers tend to be lower, so we’ll see. Are there enough players at peak times to gather up for group content/bosses?

One of the more obvious problems I see coming back is inflation. Stuff is stupidly more expensive now than a few years ago. This seems like a huge turn off for a returning or new player when stuff costs hundreds of millions of gold. >.>

I guess the last thing I can comment on is the content additions. From what I have seen the last several years there hasn’t really been new content aside from a yearly pattern of holiday gifts and a slightly modified treasures of Tokuno event? I know most of the development effort is no New Legacy but one has to wonder if the main game has been set on the back burner? Just an observation. As a returning player it’s probably not a big issue yet but coming up on a content drought in the future seems to be problematic. I know there are EM Events, but the EM’s do not replace actual new content that has to be coded in. Ne dungeons, items, mechanics etc.

In all honesty I am actually looking forward to New Legacy, it’s the main reason I started looking at UO again, I am just wondering how supported the NL Ruleset will be in the future and what the future of the production shards are as well. I am likely going to move from Atlantic to New Legacy as my main shard once that launches.

Looking forward to getting back into the game!



TLDR: Returned to UO, have concerns with how accessible the game is to new and returning players. UO has a very steep learning curve and many systems that exist without being explicitly mentioned in the game. I have concerns with the pace of new content additions and how it seems to have fallen into a predictable repeating pattern. I am concerned with the population. I am concerned with how bad gold inflation has gotten.

But either way, looking to enjoy playing on Atlantic till New Legacy launches!

 

[firec]

I just came back not too long ago. Maybe a year or two.

Love the game, find some things difficult to swallow. Went and sought advice here if you want to take a look. Lots of mixed and jaded opinions, but it is the internet afterall.

Anyhow, if you're on Atlantic, go to Luna bank, its packed.


Right now, I am only playing sparingly. MAYBE I will check out new legacy, however I don't find much interest in it.

My main concern with UO is less about it being a gigantic, thriving game... and way more about the fact they haven't done anything to truly bring new players into the game. Other games the same age as UO still manage to do this, but yet... here we are, with arguably the best and most expansive game, and as I say... the game isn't "dying", but the existing player base literally is as this game hits multi-decade levels. And without a replacement of it's player base... it will eventually kick the bucket.

 

[Dol'Gorath]

I have no doubt that UO will live on and is not in danger of going away. My worry is that Broadsword's stewardship leaves a lot to be desired. As an outsider looking in and year after year the only new content is "Spring gifts, Treasure of Tokuno for halloween, Winter Event, Winter Gift"; Rinse and repeat for several years is kind of disappointing.

I feel the team knows they have die hard whales who will never leave and keep paying their subscription whether they play or not so they can keep their houses that look like an episode of Hoarders from decaying and becoming an IDOC and therefore think they can get away with doing the bare minimum and having the Event Moderators make up for the lack of content.

I really hope with New Legacy they will commit to keeping it refreshed with new content and add things to make the game more accessible to new players.

I will remain optimistic!

 

[Keven2002]

TLDR: Returned to UO, have concerns with how accessible the game is to new and returning players. UO has a very steep learning curve and many systems that exist without being explicitly mentioned in the game. I have concerns with the pace of new content additions and how it seems to have fallen into a predictable repeating pattern. I am concerned with the population. I am concerned with how bad gold inflation has gotten.

But either way, looking to enjoy playing on Atlantic till New Legacy launches!

I have no doubt that UO will live on and is not in danger of going away. My worry is that Broadsword's stewardship leaves a lot to be desired. As an outsider looking in and year after year the only new content is "Spring gifts, Treasure of Tokuno for halloween, Winter Event, Winter Gift"; Rinse and repeat for several years is kind of disappointing.

I feel the team knows they have die hard whales who will never leave and keep paying their subscription whether they play or not so they can keep their houses that look like an episode of Hoarders from decaying and becoming an IDOC and therefore think they can get away with doing the bare minimum and having the Event Moderators make up for the lack of content.

Honestly @Dol'Gorath you have pretty much nailed it and this is what many people have been saying over the last 4-5 years since you left. The team seems content to put in the bare minimum on Prod shards as they (supposedly) focus on NL; which is shown as zero actual new content in that time frame (ie no new dungeons / new quests / new arcs). Honestly the first couple iterations of the dynamic events weren't bad because they were somewhat "fresh" but the Devs took that and have pretty much made it a "rinse/repeat" style dynamic "event" every year. These events (especially the ToT style ones) are fine (and even welcomed) as a sort of supplemental content and are the types of events that actually help newer players deal with inflation (1 drop = X million & 1 good reward = XX million), BUT they become boring when it's the only thing we see every year and just get some watered down or useless reward. There are many players, including myself, that haven't bothered with these events (trick or treating / Krampus / Artisan Fest) because there are only 1 or 2 new rewards and a ton of repeats.

The only thing that makes these events worthwhile are the rewards, so the "success" of these events purely rely on the rewards and if the rewards are lackluster (like the past 2 spring events) people become bored VERY fast. The thing is that the team has even become lax about the rewards they add by just going back to the well over and over again for these cookie cutter events like Halloween / Krampus / Artisan Fest . Just slap on a different shade or a new/different design on the same item (pillow / star) from before. People have started getting tired of paying a monthly fee for something that doesn't seem like has much effort to be upkept (even the "monthly" newsletter went away and is now just sporadic... no news isn't always good news). As things become tighter for people (cost of living increase etc) things like UO where they do not perceive value are the first to be cut.

Sure there will be people that will keep paying their subs until the end but I'm not sure how good of a business plan that is given there aren't very many brand new players to suck in and the increased age (and health issues) of some of those die hard players. I think creating NL was kind of like creating multiple clients ( CC vs EC) where the player base is basically going to be left with 2 half managed things that splits the team's attention which results in very few "brand new" updates.

EDIT: It's one thing to say UO population is "down" because some people will argue it's not (or it's summer so of course it's down a little) but even posts on Stratics are way down from what I can remember in the not so distant past. This is why I think things are trending way down for the game because there will be days I don't open Stratics and there will only be like 6-7 threads going in UHall (on of the more popular spots) or just 1 in Unleashed and the posts are from the same 5 or 6 people. I feel like others are probably in the same boat as me where they just don't feel compelled to check in; and it's way less work (and sometimes more entertaining) to pop open Stratics.

 

[Stinky Pete]

Honestly @Dol'Gorath you have pretty much nailed it and this is what many people have been saying over the last 4-5 years since you left. The team seems content to put in the bare minimum on Prod shards as they (supposedly) focus on NL; which is shown as zero actual new content in that time frame (ie no new dungeons / new quests / new arcs). Honestly the first couple iterations of the dynamic events weren't bad because they were somewhat "fresh" but the Devs took that and have pretty much made it a "rinse/repeat" style dynamic "event" every year. These events (especially the ToT style ones) are fine (and even welcomed) as a sort of supplemental content and are the types of events that actually help newer players deal with inflation (1 drop = X million & 1 good reward = XX million), BUT they become boring when it's the only thing we see every year and just get some watered down or useless reward. There are many players, including myself, that haven't bothered with these events (trick or treating / Krampus / Artisan Fest) because there are only 1 or 2 new rewards and a ton of repeats.

The only thing that makes these events worthwhile are the rewards, so the "success" of these events purely rely on the rewards and if the rewards are lackluster (like the past 2 spring events) people become bored VERY fast. The thing is that the team has even become lax about the rewards they add by just going back to the well over and over again for these cookie cutter events like Halloween / Krampus / Artisan Fest . Just slap on a different shade or a new/different design on the same item (pillow / star) from before. People have started getting tired of paying a monthly fee for something that doesn't seem like has much effort to be upkept (even the "monthly" newsletter went away and is now just sporadic... no news isn't always good news). As things become tighter for people (cost of living increase etc) things like UO where they do not perceive value are the first to be cut.

Sure there will be people that will keep paying their subs until the end but I'm not sure how good of a business plan that is given there aren't very many brand new players to suck in and the increased age (and health issues) of some of those die hard players. I think creating NL was kind of like creating multiple clients ( CC vs EC) where the player base is basically going to be left with 2 half managed things that splits the team's attention which results in very few "brand new" updates.

EDIT: It's one thing to say UO population is "down" because some people will argue it's not (or it's summer so of course it's down a little) but even posts on Stratics are way down from what I can remember in the not so distant past. This is why I think things are trending way down for the game because there will be days I don't open Stratics and there will only be like 6-7 threads going in UHall (on of the more popular spots) or just 1 in Unleashed and the posts are from the same 5 or 6 people. I feel like others are probably in the same boat as me where they just don't feel compelled to check in; and it's way less work (and sometimes more entertaining) to pop open Stratics.

But... but... the cookie cutter events are so popular.

 

[Anon McDougle]

NL should have been released as a new expansion and only on a floppy disk..

 

[old gypsy]

I returned for the nostalgia. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to access my original account (that I had played since the advent of the Second Age). It's definitely a challenge to start over like a newbie again; but it can be fun, and the nostalgia currently keeps me going.

While I certainly appreciate some of the concerns expressed in this thread, I have no real interest in NL specifically. From what I've read, NL appears to be erasing the wonderful "sandbox" feeling that I've long considered to be the beating heart of UO. That said, I have a sense that the "sandbox" itself has lost much of its original substance over time. It didn't happen overnight, and perhaps it's too late to restore it. You know, in the past, genuine roleplay did a great deal to keep UO's heart beating (just my opinion). As roleplay declined and as things become more mechanistic and materialistic... well, I might be wrong, but I tend to think it's all somehow related.

Anyway, enjoy the nostalgia while making new memories. And if you think about it along the way, maybe try a little roleplay.

 

[Silly Seadog]

NL should have been released as a new expansion and only on a floppy disk..

AAARRRRRRRR, they coulda done that and given ye a soulstone with it, like with 8th Age!

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Honestly @Dol'Gorath you have pretty much nailed it and this is what many people have been saying over the last 4-5 years since you left. The team seems content to put in the bare minimum on Prod shards as they (supposedly) focus on NL; which is shown as zero actual new content in that time frame (ie no new dungeons / new quests / new arcs). Honestly the first couple iterations of the dynamic events weren't bad because they were somewhat "fresh" but the Devs took that and have pretty much made it a "rinse/repeat" style dynamic "event" every year. These events (especially the ToT style ones) are fine (and even welcomed) as a sort of supplemental content and are the types of events that actually help newer players deal with inflation (1 drop = X million & 1 good reward = XX million), BUT they become boring when it's the only thing we see every year and just get some watered down or useless reward. There are many players, including myself, that haven't bothered with these events (trick or treating / Krampus / Artisan Fest) because there are only 1 or 2 new rewards and a ton of repeats.

The only thing that makes these events worthwhile are the rewards, so the "success" of these events purely rely on the rewards and if the rewards are lackluster (like the past 2 spring events) people become bored VERY fast. The thing is that the team has even become lax about the rewards they add by just going back to the well over and over again for these cookie cutter events like Halloween / Krampus / Artisan Fest . Just slap on a different shade or a new/different design on the same item (pillow / star) from before. People have started getting tired of paying a monthly fee for something that doesn't seem like has much effort to be upkept (even the "monthly" newsletter went away and is now just sporadic... no news isn't always good news). As things become tighter for people (cost of living increase etc) things like UO where they do not perceive value are the first to be cut.

Sure there will be people that will keep paying their subs until the end but I'm not sure how good of a business plan that is given there aren't very many brand new players to suck in and the increased age (and health issues) of some of those die hard players. I think creating NL was kind of like creating multiple clients ( CC vs EC) where the player base is basically going to be left with 2 half managed things that splits the team's attention which results in very few "brand new" updates.

EDIT: It's one thing to say UO population is "down" because some people will argue it's not (or it's summer so of course it's down a little) but even posts on Stratics are way down from what I can remember in the not so distant past. This is why I think things are trending way down for the game because there will be days I don't open Stratics and there will only be like 6-7 threads going in UHall (on of the more popular spots) or just 1 in Unleashed and the posts are from the same 5 or 6 people. I feel like others are probably in the same boat as me where they just don't feel compelled to check in; and it's way less work (and sometimes more entertaining) to pop open Stratics.

I saw a dev on the official forum on a thread when someone was asking for somethin g new reply with "Well...we are doing another Treasures of Tokuno because its popular!" Just because its popular doesn't mean you should rinse and repeat things. *facepalm*

I really think after NL comes out, the dev team NEEDS to focus on looking into spreading awareness of UO and making moves to get new players. If necessary they need to make quality of life improvements and changes to the game that the die hards may object to, but as you pointed out, the die hards are literally dropping dead from old age so you can't really keep running a semi empty game full of empty unused houses that take up valuable space that are kept up because someone forgot to remove the credit card. I have been making a lot of UO posts on X lately and get almost no engagement because no one really knows or cares about what UO is. I think its a lack of awareness and a team who wants to grow the game cause you see free shards like Outlands having all sorts of engagement, twitch and youtube streamers, and Outlands is growing due to all the word of mouth being spread.

Like I pointed out, the New Player tutorial is broken and no longer runs on character creation. This is not 1997 anymore, you need to guide players. There are a lot of systems in this game and its a steep learning curve.

If you were to ask a new player the following, would they be able to answer?

1: How does basic skill gain work? Do you know how to best train difficulty based skills?

2: Are you aware of the Guaranteed Gain System? Do you know the time intervals for Guaranteed Gains and how to best plan your gameplay around them?

3: Do you know what Felucca is? You probably should not be going there as a new player till you learn the ropes.

Etc: I can keep going. But none of these things are explicitly explained in game and players should not be expected or required to look outside the game. World of Warcraft has an in-game guide that is regularly updated. UO has an in-game guide...that hasn't been updated since AOS and still lists Powerhour as being a thing. >.>

Of all my concerns, population and attracting new players is probably the thing the dev team needs to focus on the most after New Legacy. If not you get reviews like this on Youtube where a player was actually having fun playing the game and getting others from his Discord to try it out, but ultimately quit and went to Outlands because the official servers do not explain anything and the free to play model is very restrictive.

 

[Dol'Gorath]

I returned for the nostalgia. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to access my original account (that I had played since the advent of the Second Age). It's definitely a challenge to start over like a newbie again; but it can be fun, and the nostalgia currently keeps me going.

While I certainly appreciate some of the concerns expressed in this thread, I have no real interest in NL specifically. From what I've read, NL appears to be erasing the wonderful "sandbox" feeling that I've long considered to be the beating heart of UO. That said, I have a sense that the "sandbox" itself has lost much of its original substance over time. It didn't happen overnight, and perhaps it's too late to restore it. You know, in the past, genuine roleplay did a great deal to keep UO's heart beating (just my opinion). As roleplay declined and as things become more mechanistic and materialistic... well, I might be wrong, but I tend to think it's all somehow related.

Anyway, enjoy the nostalgia while making new memories. And if you think about it along the way, maybe try a little roleplay.

I don't think NL destroys what makes UO UO, it is just a different way to play. A lot of the complaints come from the usual crowd of die hard players that do not want any real change in UO and that is partly why the game is in the situation it is now.
After having played the NL Beta for a little over a month, I am having a lot of fun and they are taking feedback into account to make it better.

I like how fast the skill gains are. Let's be real, everyone here has played for a LONG time. We know how skill gains works. We know how slow skill gain can be. We have all at one time of another put a heavy weight on the keyboard and left the computer spamming a magery macro to train magery as you sleep... *cough*

The way you make a character in NL is quest based, but they added to option to do it the old fashioned way if you really want to. Being able to just play the game without needing to grind or skill up for hours on end is a god send. I can do low level dungeons for my objectives, spend an hour gaining my skills through quests and can then get on to other things. This is actually very reminiscent to how Powerhour worked before Publish 16. If you remember how Powerhour worked, you got massively accelerated gains for one hour a day before reverting back to the normal slow skill gain. NL feels pretty much the same way, you can just make quick progress on your character in a short time, then you can hang out with your guild or do other things. Ultimately this actually IMPROVES the social aspect of the game in my opinion.

UO is a sandbox yes, but at the same time it doesn't hurt to add bosses, quests, more dungeons, and other things to flesh out the world, which has the effect of maintaining player interest and roleplaying potential.

I personally think New Legacy is a good thing and hopefully some of the quality of life changes on the shard make it to production eventually.

I am enjoying myself however skilling up and just building my new character though Taming as always is such a chore. I imagine Taming will also be easier to gain on New Legacy haha.

 

[Pawain]

I personally think New Legacy is a good thing I imagine Taming will also be easier to gain on New Legacy haha.

Took a couple of hours to go from 0 to max. But now that I have done it, it would take an hour for me. I am slow at playing.

 

[Spartan]

NL should have been released as a new expansion and only on a floppy disk..

an 8 inch one I suppose.

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Took a couple of hours to go from 0 to max. But now that I have done it, it would take an hour for me. I am slow at playing.

A few hours to max out the skill is pretty nice. Is Taming only available through advanced skill training or is there a quest line for it like with the primary classes?

 

[Pawain]

A few hours to max out the skill is pretty nice. Is Taming only available through advanced skill training or is there a quest line for it like with the primary classes?

I did the method I prefer, the quest driven skills. If the mixed method stays, it will be faster.

 

[Discord]

I saw a dev on the official forum on a thread when someone was asking for somethin g new reply with "Well...we are doing another Treasures of Tokuno because its popular!" Just because its popular doesn't mean you should rinse and repeat things. *facepalm*

I really think after NL comes out, the dev team NEEDS to focus on looking into spreading awareness of UO and making moves to get new players. If necessary they need to make quality of life improvements and changes to the game that the die hards may object to, but as you pointed out, the die hards are literally dropping dead from old age so you can't really keep running a semi empty game full of empty unused houses that take up valuable space that are kept up because someone forgot to remove the credit card. I have been making a lot of UO posts on X lately and get almost no engagement because no one really knows or cares about what UO is. I think its a lack of awareness and a team who wants to grow the game cause you see free shards like Outlands having all sorts of engagement, twitch and youtube streamers, and Outlands is growing due to all the word of mouth being spread.

Like I pointed out, the New Player tutorial is broken and no longer runs on character creation. This is not 1997 anymore, you need to guide players. There are a lot of systems in this game and its a steep learning curve.

If you were to ask a new player the following, would they be able to answer?

1: How does basic skill gain work? Do you know how to best train difficulty based skills?

2: Are you aware of the Guaranteed Gain System? Do you know the time intervals for Guaranteed Gains and how to best plan your gameplay around them?

3: Do you know what Felucca is? You probably should not be going there as a new player till you learn the ropes.

Etc: I can keep going. But none of these things are explicitly explained in game and players should not be expected or required to look outside the game. World of Warcraft has an in-game guide that is regularly updated. UO has an in-game guide...that hasn't been updated since AOS and still lists Powerhour as being a thing. >.>

Of all my concerns, population and attracting new players is probably the thing the dev team needs to focus on the most after New Legacy. If not you get reviews like this on Youtube where a player was actually having fun playing the game and getting others from his Discord to try it out, but ultimately quit and went to Outlands because the official servers do not explain anything and the free to play model is very restrictive.

Don't disagree with your take on this. Issue is with these free servers such as Outlands, UOAlive, etc. is that there is a huge risk involved. What I mean by this is, it could just go belly up one day without any warning or explanation. Be it due to life events of those who manage said shard, sudden lack of interest from owners, cost of maintaining servers, time, etc. Personally speaking, I don't entertain anything outside of OSI. Doesn't mean that it is not worth the weight in salt, just a personal preference.

As it pertains to New Legacy, I understand the need to get new people involved as you have mentioned old blood or a changing of the guard (if you will) as older players age and give up the ghost. I won't spend any time with NL (personally). I didn't spend years of playing UO, accumulating items, real-estate, skilling, etc. just to put it on the back burner for NL which resets seasonally. The juice isn't worth the squeeze, again it is my humble opinion. Others have a different take and may find it enjoyable. However, something needed to occur in order to spark a renewed interest in the game. I believe that is something we can all agree on.

 

[Dol'Gorath]

I did the method I prefer, the quest driven skills. If the mixed method stays, it will be faster.

Very nice. I really love the questing for character progression!

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Don't disagree with your take on this. Issue is with these free servers such as Outlands, UOAlive, etc. is that there is a huge risk involved. What I mean by this is, it could just go belly up one day without any warning or explanation. Be it due to life events of those who manage said shard, sudden lack of interest from owners, cost of maintaining servers, time, etc. Personally speaking, I don't entertain anything outside of OSI. Doesn't mean that it is not worth the weight in salt, just a personal preference.

As it pertains to New Legacy, I understand the need to get new people involved as you have mentioned old blood or a changing of the guard (if you will) as older players age and give up the ghost. I won't spend any time with NL (personally). I didn't spend years of playing UO, accumulating items, real-estate, skilling, etc. just to put it on the back burner for NL which resets seasonally. The juice isn't worth the squeeze, again it is my humble opinion. Others have a different take and may find it enjoyable. However, something needed to occur in order to spark a renewed interest in the game. I believe that is something we can all agree on.

Oh yeah definitely. I have no real interest in player run shards. I have my issues with how Broadsword is running the game, but the official shards at least have longevity and stability. That is why I am set on advocating for the dev team to do better. ^^

I get that NL is not for everyone. I think part of the appeal to me is that I let my house fall in 2019 and lost everything...including some stuff that I will never be able to get back. But without those old attachments, that is probably why NL appeals to me; It is a fresh start, unburdened by the baggage of being an old shard, and being a new and unique ruleset. I still don't know how I feel about it being seasonal, but I'll give it a try for at least one season. They have confirmed that when a season ends those characters get a free transfer to existing shards - so it's probably an easy way to get nearly maxed out characters leveled up fast and transferred to shards as alternate characters. So there is that.

The best-case scenario is if there is a renewed interest in the game. I feel like the Community Manager should focus on posting about UO on X to help build up engagement. I post every so often about UO when I bring up nostalgia and retro MMOs, and don't get much engagement =[
Community Manager should also post more interesting content than just standing around EM events while visible and breaking immersion. *facepalm*

 

[Discord]

"I still don't know how I feel about it being seasonal, but I'll give it a try for at least one season. They have confirmed that when a season ends those characters get a free transfer to existing shards - so it's probably an easy way to get nearly maxed out characters leveled up fast and transferred to shards as alternate characters. So there is that."

You bring up a very valid point with this, I hadn't even considered that. By all means, my friend. Give it the ole college try .It's nice to have a returning player such as yourself return. Welcome back to the community, Sir!

 

[Anon McDougle]

Where did they confirm transfer off was free ? Or mention it at all

 

[Keven2002]

Where did they confirm transfer off was free ? Or mention it at all

They did say there would be transfers from NL during one of the early Q&A videos they did but I don't think anything went into writing on that. They never said anything about free though.

That's the thing when it's been 4+ years waiting on the release without any real vision / roadmap (documentation); things get said along the way (much by non-Dev people) and people start to think something someone said 3 years ago which was their opinion is an actual fact. It's like a digital online version of telephone.

 

[Veldrane]

They did say there would be transfers from NL during one of the early Q&A videos they did but I don't think anything went into writing on that. They never said anything about free though.

That's the thing when it's been 4+ years waiting on the release without any real vision / roadmap (documentation); things get said along the way (much by non-Dev people) and people start to think something someone said 3 years ago which was their opinion is an actual fact. It's like a digital online version of telephone.

It baffles me how hard it is for some people to understand this.

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Where did they confirm transfer off was free ? Or mention it at all

They mentioned it in one of the old QA videos. I haven't heard them say otherwise in regard to that yet. It makes sense, that the shard itself is not permanent so you would be able to keep your character on another shard rather than just having it be deleted. Maybe that is a question to ask on the official NL forum and see if that is still the plan?

 

[Anon McDougle]

They mentioned it in one of the old QA videos. I haven't heard them say otherwise in regard to that yet. It makes sense, that the shard itself is not permanent so you would be able to keep your character on another shard rather than just having it be deleted. Maybe that is a question to ask on the official NL forum and see if that is still the plan?

Oddly enough I've asked multiple times and been ignored

 

[Veldrane]

Oddly enough I've asked multiple times and been ignored

Not only ignored but berated by the cheerleader squad

 

[Anon McDougle]

I'm starting to think my theory that the coding for skilling is different and incompatible with production shards

 

[Keven2002]

I'm starting to think my theory that the coding for skilling is different and incompatible with production shards

Hypothetically I don't think it matters if the coding for skilling (or any other game mechanic) on NL will be different/incompatible from Prod if we assume the way we build skill on Prod stays like it is because assuming we can transfer the toon, it would simply be a character with 100 (GM) skill. That's the exact same way as it exist today on a Prod shard (a skill at 100 on NL equates to the same skill at 100 on Prod).

Said in a more simple way, GM swords is GM swords regardless of shard and it doesn't matter how you got there once you are there it should be apples to apples. The only issue I see would be if there was some new skill introduced on NL that wouldn't fully transfer over functionality to Prod OR the way to raise it is wonky (ie impossible to raise on Prod ).

 

[Keven2002]

EDIT: It's one thing to say UO population is "down" because some people will argue it's not (or it's summer so of course it's down a little) but even posts on Stratics are way down from what I can remember in the not so distant past. This is why I think things are trending way down for the game because there will be days I don't open Stratics and there will only be like 6-7 threads going in UHall (on of the more popular spots) or just 1 in Unleashed and the posts are from the same 5 or 6 people. I feel like others are probably in the same boat as me where they just don't feel compelled to check in; and it's way less work (and sometimes more entertaining) to pop open Stratics.

Quick observation; from the time I posted yesterday morning in Unleashed to now (about 24 hours) there were zero posts made in Unleashed and zero posts made in the NL area (since Wednesday AND testing weekend #8 has been open the past 2 days), and there was only 1 thread in UHall commented on (only 2 posts). This is a little subjective, but from my view the 3 most popular spots to post have a total of 2 posts in a single thread in a 24 hour period.

I guess it could be that everyone is busy playing UO instead of posting here but somehow I don't think that's the case given there isn't anything new on the Prod shards and it seems like (from what I've read) a good amount of NL Testers have said they are done testing NL and will wait until it comes out to play it again.

 

[Veldrane]

I guess it could be that everyone is busy playing UO instead of posting here but somehow I don't think that's the case given there isn't anything new on the Prod shards and it seems like (from what I've read) a good amount of NL Testers have said they are done testing NL and will wait until it comes out to play it again.

If you translate that over to the official forums, you'll see roughly the same trend. As you said, forum posts are far from conclusive data points. However, generally, when a game has more engagement, there are more posts on the primary social interactions. NL does not appear to be reinvigorating the player base at this time, and the lack of attention to the production shards is exacerbating the issue.

A particular poster keeps browbeating that the masses don't "need to know" and that they should be thrilled with the discovery process. However, the lack of quality communication regarding the goals, roadmap, and thought process behind NL is giving players no reason to be excited and engaged. Yes, there needs to be the thrill of discovery, but that thrill is tied to a story, specific questlines, NPC building, etc., not basic functionality. I get it; Bonnie doesn't take criticism well, and the average player's idea of " fixing" things lacks a metric truck ton of understanding of why certain things work as they do. That being said, if you want to make a commercially viable product, you have to listen to your customer base - not about specifics, but watch the trends in feedback - and, more importantly, COMMUNICATE the vision you are trying to achieve and how you are going about achieving that vision.

 

[Anon McDougle]

It does seem very quiet the first 6 weeks the beta forum was very active

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Oddly enough I've asked multiple times and been ignored

Speaking of those QA videos, it looks like they pulled them down lol. The oldest video on the UO channel is from 2015, but all the early NL QA's are no longer there. I am glad the dev team pulls down the actual engaging interesting content and most of the channel is now the community manager walking around EM events. And then people wonder why UO has no engagement or interaction to get people interested in the game.

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Quick observation; from the time I posted yesterday morning in Unleashed to now (about 24 hours) there were zero posts made in Unleashed and zero posts made in the NL area (since Wednesday AND testing weekend #8 has been open the past 2 days), and there was only 1 thread in UHall commented on (only 2 posts). This is a little subjective, but from my view the 3 most popular spots to post have a total of 2 posts in a single thread in a 24 hour period.

I guess it could be that everyone is busy playing UO instead of posting here but somehow I don't think that's the case given there isn't anything new on the Prod shards and it seems like (from what I've read) a good amount of NL Testers have said they are done testing NL and will wait until it comes out to play it again.

Engagement is very low. People can argue "Lol everyone is in game or on Discord" but if you look at other games, particularly Runescape, World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV, they have VERY active forums and community engagement on social media on X, Youtube and Twitch. An active forum is the first thing a new player will look at, if there is minimal activity it is a huge turn off.

I think a lot of this has to do with Mesanna's EXTREME micro management style of running the game. I am sure every single word that the community manager types has to be approved on an individual basis. If you look up Ultima Online on Twitter/X, you will find occasional nostalgia posts, and the only active UO content is going to be from Japan where UO still seems to have a good amount of popularity. There is nothing from the official UO X account. No engagement. No Advertising. No "Hey look at this cool stuff in UO, come join us! Visit us on uo.com!"

 

[Grugot]

Our shard has completely died with the introduction of NL. Maybe it'll change but I've moved on. Not a lot of fun on a shard with only the same 4 or 5 people

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Our shard has completely died with the introduction of NL. Maybe it'll change but I've moved on. Not a lot of fun on a shard with only the same 4 or 5 people

Which shard? I personally went with Atlantic cause that was my original shard when I first played in 2000. It consequently ended up being the main shard over time. It is sad to see the other shards so empty, the problem made worse with those stupid shard shields that should never have been made because they make the problem of people funneling everything to Atlantic to sell, thus driving more people to Atlantic and using the dead shards as resource farms.

 

[Goldberg-Chessy]

Oh yeah definitely. I have no real interest in player run shards. I have my issues with how Broadsword is running the game, but the official shards at least have longevity and stability. That is why I am set on advocating for the dev team to do better. ^^

I get that NL is not for everyone. I think part of the appeal to me is that I let my house fall in 2019 and lost everything...including some stuff that I will never be able to get back. But without those old attachments, that is probably why NL appeals to me; It is a fresh start, unburdened by the baggage of being an old shard, and being a new and unique ruleset. I still don't know how I feel about it being seasonal, but I'll give it a try for at least one season. They have confirmed that when a season ends those characters get a free transfer to existing shards - so it's probably an easy way to get nearly maxed out characters leveled up fast and transferred to shards as alternate characters. So there is that.

The best-case scenario is if there is a renewed interest in the game. I feel like the Community Manager should focus on posting about UO on X to help build up engagement. I post every so often about UO when I bring up nostalgia and retro MMOs, and don't get much engagement =[
Community Manager should also post more interesting content than just standing around EM events while visible and breaking immersion. *facepalm*

You aren't even officially back yet and you have already mentioned multiple times that you have issues w/ how Broadsword runs the game. There is insane amounts of content but you want to focus on the corporate office. Go away. You can't reclaim nostalgia and you obviously don't seem like you want to just be content enjoying the game as is

 

[Dol'Gorath]

You aren't even officially back yet and you have already mentioned multiple times that you have issues w/ how Broadsword runs the game. There is insane amounts of content but you want to focus on the corporate office. Go away. You can't reclaim nostalgia and you obviously don't seem like you want to just be content enjoying the game as is

I will admit that was my bad for getting carried away on the forum. I have been off the forum for a week or so and have been just playing and enjoying myself, putting in several hours a day. I am actually quite content my apologies for giving the impression otherwise.