How would you bring the community together?

[Mentiras]

The idea was taken from yadiman's thread, but the original post seemed destined for negativity (sorry yadi).

Here is the basis for any answers that may or may not follow:
1- you have all the "powers" of the Stratics Team and the Uo Dev Team
2- the plan should be extremely detailed (we do a and b and c should happen, maybe even d)
3- take into consideration any possible negative feedback you may get and plan accordingly

Please try to only offer constructive criticism, and don't be led astray from the stated topic.
Thank you

 

[CovenantX]

1. Different artifacts for every facet no two facets would drop the same items, T-maps, & resource gathering skills would get a unique resource from each facet as well.

So that people wouldn't always choose to go one place instead of another, There would be something different in every area.

2. There would be a form of "dungeon Currency" like shame points/despise points in Every single dungeon, with a reward vendor for each one.
There would certainly be different things you buy/make with Dungeon Currency.

A very good system, with lots of potential also maintains a reason to hunt in each dungeon & different dungeons.

3. Remove Tactics as a required skill for weapon specials, Make the effectiveness of weapon special moves gain a 10% effect bonus (duration/damage) for every 20.0 skill invested in Tactics skill, allow casters to toggle weapon specials while casting spells.

Because of the character builds that were destroyed due to the changes were unnecessary,
It was the quick way out, instead of adjusting each spell/skill to balance it properly melee dexers were the real victims

4. New expansions, including a mirror of each facet that would be fel rules (equal content for everyone).

5. Above all....Advertise UO.

but that's just me.

 

[cazador]

I've said this a couple times...

Revamp doom and do random double chance times..like how these games do double xp events..we get a double chance..like a better chance for certain areas I think doom would be a good spot..and revamp the artifacts and make them imbuable..to add a new flavor to the whole system..so say that hotm drops in your bag I could drop in 5 different colors..blaze(super rare) ice white ice blue shadow black berserker red glacial blue..rarity changes based on level you've obtained say blaze is artifact rarity 20 and has a 650 imbuable weight..comes stock with sdi 10 mr 4 and the rest blank

 

[cazador]

I've said this before..revamp doom freshen the mobs to make it not soloable I'm not saying add 50,000 HP because let's face it that's ridiculous..give each mob something to encourage teamwork..like if your party is less than 3 a flesh renderer does double damage..ya kno things like that but it should be a completely revamped artifact system..expansion worthy

Add new artifacts..useful ones not like the bone crusher..

All current artifacts in game stay as is..

All new drops have a different rating system

All artifacts are imbuable with an increased weight
Weight in bracket
Colored levels( order of rareness)
Blaze(rare)- artifact rating 25 (725)
Glacial blue-artifact rating 22 (680)
Ice white-artifact rating 20 (630)
Ice blue-artifact rating 18 (600)
Shadow black-artifact rating 15 (550)
Default- artifact rating 12 (500)

Now each level is imbuable and each artifact has set mods ie:
Hat of the magi
Spell damage 10%
Mana regen 4
Blank resists...

They could add gems for each type of mods (defense chance Gem) you need 5 gems and they can be combined at a soul forge to give max intensity deed.. But the kicker is if say you want to put defense chance on your new hat of the magi if It can not be imbued on there regularly it will now take 1.5x the imbuable weight..obviously it'll need to be tweaked so u can't put Double hit spells or hit spell on your hat..

Not only would this almost force teamwork but it adds hundreds of possibilities to crafting suits and keeping players in game rather then scripting logs etc..

 

[Merus]

IMO one of the most important things to promoting community play would be to remove the barriers that promote solo play. Please note that this is unrelated to the idea of growing the size of our community (i.e. bring in new players and bring vets back). New content and new artis are great, but I do not feel that they change the dynamic of how people hunt for them. I also do not want to remove the ability for solo players to enjoy the content of the game, some players or some shards would be completely crushed without the ability for people to hunt alone based on shard population or time of day.


Examples:

Drops: Everyone deserves a chance at a drop. Bosses that only drop a single arti regardless of the number of people attacking it do not promote group hunting, expecially when that boss is soloable. If I need a pair of tinker legs and can solo a mini champ in around 7 minutes, why would I want to share the chance at the drop?

Party system: Can we say instanced corpses again please, just one more time? This would promote parties amoung strangers for additional benefits like bard songs (among other benefits).

Scalability: Areas like champ spawns, bosses, etc should be scalable in difficulty and chance for reward based on the number of participants (up to a certain cap of say 10 people). So you can solo Lady M., ok, but how about her hit points and her damage increase by 5% for every additional player in her zone... but her chance for each person to get a drop increases by 3% per person in the zone. Take 10 people (a full party) and Lady M is 1.5 times stronger making her a little bit more of a challenge, but everyone has a +30% chance for a drop.

I am sure there are more ideas like those listed above. Overall the goal should be to promote the individual incentive to hunt with other people, particularly strangers and newer players.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Sorry... but the answer is simple. While the above responses are well thought out and I am sure, much appreciated they are incorrect.

In all honesty the building of the "community" falls on us players. The Devs have done their best at putting things into UO to bring the community together. They brought back the EM Program in hopes of building the community. They brought in general chat to allow conversation in attempts to build the community. They brought out the "new player smell" deal, to build the community and focus on those just starting out. They have brought out dungeon revamps that require you to work with others to defeat the boss. They have brought out tougher bosses that are very hard if not impossible to legally solo (Corgul, Osierdon, Cora) to build the community. They have brought out even Halloween content that encourages communication between people to find "your" colored bones in attempts to build the community. They have tried almost everything a person can think of to motivate US to build the community.

At some point we have to point the finger of blame where it should be pointed... at the player base it's self. I am not pointing the finger solely at the griefers, scammers and "kiddie mentality" folks, they are only a small part of the equation. Everyone has witnessed someone in Gen Chat asking for a rune book, or help on finding an easy place to train etc. How many people actually answer the people back and help out? Honestly now..... Very few folks, and it always seems to be the same ones who do. All too often we all (myself included) are caught up in what our next conquest will be, or are too busy chasing the latest greatest arti to stop and help.

So...
to the question asked. What would I do having all the powers of the Devs.....

To the player base I would simply say: The world of Ultima Online is a living, breathing creation. Each of you individually are it's heart. In order for it to survive the heart has to continue pumping out what it needs to survive. At the end of the day, no pixel is great enough to keep any person in this creation. The true life blood of this creation is friendships, relationships and the bond that is shared by those who play. That life blood can never freely flow unless we take the time to get to know other folks, especially those who are newer.

Just food for thought....

but to illustrate my point, I wonder how many of us really only stay in UO due to the friendships we have in game. I know for a fact I am in that crowd. If it were not for the friendships I have with those in game I would have left YEARS ago. And I can honestly say, the majority of those were started by someone helping someone else. Either I helped them initially, or they helped me initially. For those clutching their pixels now thinking "I am not helping anyone, these things are mine"... Helping is not necessarily giving items, it's passing down knowledge, it's also taking a noobie hunting and doing your best to keep them alive.

 

[Madrid]

I don't want to be brought together. If I want to go play in a group I'll start a guild or join a guild.

No amount of pickel crack is going to change that.

All the suggestions above are adding pickel crack.

There's nothing wrong with the community. There may be a lack of players and therefore there may be what appears to be a "lack of community".

The game is 15 years old and while it has great content it looks like hell and isn't going to bring in any new players.

The game suffers from attrition without adding new players.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

All the suggestions above are adding pickel crack.

Umm, almost all. Scanning and not reading?

 

[Tanivar]

The game is 15 years old and while it has great content it looks like hell and isn't going to bring in any new players.

It will bring in those who are sick & tired of the games that lead you by the nose through the game from start to finish. The same quests and monsters get old after you play a game seven or eight times. You been max level for 6 months fighting the same monsters? Gets old.

The game doesn't look bad, well unless your using the EC with it's current graphics. There are people who could care less whether the graphics are a pixel addicts fantasy land. Look at the graphics of many of the games advertised here on Stratics, Companies create those games with those graphics because they know most people don't require the pixel addicts fantasy land stuff, they just want a game thats fun, and will play those games.

Until EA gets it's act together and advertises UO stressing how it's different from those lead you by the nose level-based games and pointing out all these differences that most games out there don't have and can't compete against, no one who is bored with the pixel crack and same ole same ole of level-based games is likely to hear of UO's sandbox play with 15 years of content to have fun with.

Figure out a way to reduce UO's learning curve so new players are not overwhelmed. Many are used to the games that have very limited play that makes them easy to learn since they lead you through by the nose. UO is a complicated game compared to WoW and the other games out there, a new player needs to be given the basic knowledge to get started. Right now a new player is basically dropped into the deep end to sink or swim.

One very good thing to do would be for EA to arrange with Pinco to add much of his work to the Enhanced Client that is downloaded from the website so that new players get a better client to start with than they do now. A thorough downloadable printer friendly manual for the EC to explain how it works would be a very good thing to provide. Something a new player can have on his desk beside the keyboard to tell him how to work all the EC's bells & whistles.

It really all depends on EA. Do they want to add players to UO, or just keep it going for the longest running game angle.

 

[Uvtha]

The idea was taken from yadiman's thread, but the original post seemed destined for negativity (sorry yadi).

Here is the basis for any answers that may or may not follow:
1- you have all the "powers" of the Stratics Team and the Uo Dev Team
2- the plan should be extremely detailed (we do a and b and c should happen, maybe even d)
3- take into consideration any possible negative feedback you may get and plan accordingly

Please try to only offer constructive criticism, and don't be led astray from the stated topic.
Thank you

Set up a f2p pay system. Start making expansions again.

 

[SpyderBite]

Consolidate all the servers to a Siege rule set, cut the subscription to $4.99/month and add a native Mac client.

$13/month for a 15 year old gaming engine is crazy. I'm not a fan of f2p.. But at least charge a sub rate that is on par with the age of the game.

 

[Viper09]

This game needs advertising.
They can do whatever else to improve this game but without getting the attention of other potential players it will be a nearly useless effort. We need newer players a lot more than trying to please the players who left.

 

[kaio]

So many great idea's
I would like to see some kind of f2p system, that goes from completly free to $4.99/mo fee.
The free model, should't be able to place a house, and their account won't grow older, and cannot pick/use vet rewards. Thats the only restrictions.
Only new accounts can be f2p.
Revamp doom, so we can get Orny's with random resist. (who dosen't want an orny with 15 physical resist ? ) + all the other cool ideas from this thread (hom in cool colors..i cant see why not) And remove those useless arties. Let them drop somewhere else, so that the old useless stuff, wont go superrare.
Revamp PVP, Make it simple so people can understand it. Remove silly things like, mages running around with 70 DCI, to counter HLD, make HLD useless in pvp.
Revamp Champ spawns so people can't solo them.
Revamp Factions or remove them.
Remove useless land masses.
Remove replica drops from champ spawn, the ps'es/sots is reward enough.
Fix cheating, speedhacking,bugs.
Simplify vet rewards. If account is older than 5 years, u can get access to all rewards (meaning u can use them, u wont get a copy of them) Those Accounts that are younger get access to all vet rewards upto 5th year.
Fix order/chaos, i would like to see people fight in luna, or somewhere not fel.

Make a Mac client
Make a Ubuntu(Linux) Client.
Advertise, Tell the world about this great game...
And i could go on, and on, and on

 

[yadiman]

do random double chance times..like how these games do double xp events..we get a double chance..like a better chance for certain areas I think doom would be a good spot..and revamp the artifacts and make them imbuable..to add a new flavor to the whole system..so say that hotm drops in your bag I could drop in 5 different colors..blaze(super rare) ice white ice blue shadow black berserker red glacial blue..rarity changes based on level you've obtained say blaze is artifact rarity 20 and has a 650 imbuable weight..comes stock with sdi 10 mr 4 and the rest blank

Everyone deserves a chance at a drop. Bosses that only drop a single arti regardless of the number of people attacking it do not promote group hunting, expecially when that boss is soloable. If I need a pair of tinker legs and can solo a mini champ in around 7 minutes, why would I want to share the chance at the drop?

Figure out a way to reduce UO's learning curve so new players are not overwhelmed. Many are used to the games that have very limited play that makes them easy to learn since they lead you through by the nose. UO is a complicated game compared to WoW and the other games out there, a new player needs to be given the basic knowledge to get started. Right now a new player is basically dropped into the deep end to sink or swim.
One very good thing to do would be for EA to arrange with Pinco to add much of his work to the Enhanced Client that is downloaded from the website so that new players get a better client to start with than they do now.

^^ +1

BTW, they already said they are NOT going F2P. They also basically implied at the 15th anniversary party that if you want advertising, do it yourself.

 

[Viquire]

Or you could give guilds a reason to be guilds again. That could be a lot of things. I already wrote one longish response in a thread today, and thats enough.

 

[Shakkara]

I'd start a lot of things from scratch, not to make this game less Ultima, but to restore the vision of Ultima that we've slowly but surely strayed from.

I'd demolish all the NPC towns and make 8 new towns in their place and reshape the land as much as possible without affecting spots with existing player housing. The new towns will be huge (britain/trinsic size), but there will be no buildings within the city limits, just the roads, walls and a basic city hall building. Instead, players can build houses in the empty spots (limit 1 house per account still applies). Placing a house makes you a citizen of the town, but forces you to pay tax to the city coffers. If tax goes unpaid for too long, you will lose your house (all stuff goes in global moving crate and will re-appear in next house you place).

Each town has a limited capacity for shops/inns/stables/etc. Citizens with the relevant GM+ skills can bid on licences that turns your house into one of these building types for three months. You'll have NPC shopkeepers to assist you and far-reaching control over the goods and services your shop offers. You can buy generic resources from the city (if trade official made them available, see below) and resell them automatically in your stores for a profit. Any crafted goods can also be put up for sale. Owning a shop gives your account access to unique, limited use crafting recipes (you can craft X amount of these artifacts per week) that are not obtainable elsewhere and carry the name of your shop as a kind of maker's mark.

Towns hold elections and choose their own player-run government, including positions such as governor, treasurer, trade official, captain of the guard, etc. The player government determines taxes and expenses. Funds in the city coffers can be used for various purposes - procuring trade contracts to supply your city stores, buying decorations that can be placed within in the town limits, upgrading the city hall or city walls, hiring NPC guards, purchasing upgardes such as increased storage capacity or better trading opportunities, etc.

There will be epic multiplayer quests that affect the entire city, these fit generic themes (so they're easier to program) but have a little bit of variation each time. Themes are NPC invasions (similar setup to invasion of Britain, with the progressive NPC checkpoints that can be beaten back or eventually flood into the city), resource gathering missions (gather 500k ash wood), crafting missions (craft 20k broadswords and 10k suits of platemail armor), and so on. All citizens can participate in these quests and score contribution points each time they help the city out. The city government can use city funds to grant unique rewards to the top participants. Succesfully completing these quests grants opportunities to the city (more trade options, more shop licences, rights to upgrade city hall and walls), while failure results in negative effects to the city or even destruction of walls and decorations if the city is really being neglected.

From time to time, cities can declare war on each other, this allows citizens of the respective towns to turn on a PVP flag on their character(s) which enables them to attack PVP-flagged characters of the opposing towns. Players can attempt to raid the opposing towns by breaching the walls and occupying the city hall for a set amount of time. This allows each player to loot a sealed box of booty from the city hall (gold and trade goods) which they can deliver to their own town hall. Every once in a while, a caravan of NPC pack animals and guards will depart from the victorious town to the conquered town. Players must escort this caravan. If the caravan makes it to the defeated city hall, it will remove gold and trade goods from the city store. For each pack animal that makes it back to the victor's city, gold and resources is added to the town's treasury. Attackers can also set player's shops on fire for a small amount of generic loot, which disables the shop until the invaders have been repelled and the fires have been put out.

There you go. Community-driven gameplay, crafting made worthwhile, the good parts of Faction War revised, new game mechanics for everyone.

 

[THP]

SIMPLE MAKE TWO SHARDS ...EASTSIDE AND WEST SIDE AND BRING THE DWINDLING POPULATION TOGETHER....JESUS IT NOT ROCKET SCIENCE IS IT

 

[Tazar]

SIMPLE MAKE TWO SHARDS ...EASTSIDE AND WEST SIDE AND BRING THE DWINDLING POPULATION TOGETHER....JESUS IT NOT ROCKET SCIENCE IS IT

If only it were that simple... but prior conversations have proved that it really is more difficult than Rocket Science...

 

[THP]

If only it were that simple... but prior conversations have proved that it really is more difficult than Rocket Science...

NO.......U R WRONG........SHARD GATES IS EASY OPTION 1
USING THE 2 MOST POPULATED SHARDS AND INTERGRATING THE LESSER SHARDS...AND WE ARE ONY TALKING 100 PEOPLE N A LOT OF THE SHARDS WITH A NEW LAND / AREA OF HOUSE PLACEMENT[CASTLE FOR A CASTLE ...18 FOR A 18 ETC ETC] IS ANOTHER

AND B4 ANYONE SAYS LUNA.....LUNA SUCKS....MAKE WBB THE TRADING CAPITAL AGAIN...BLOW UP LUNA [like we did with magincia] AND MY LUNA HOUSE WITH IT

 

[MalagAste]

Wow.... great posts...

Where to begin... first off I agree many things need revamped.... imbuing artifacts needs to come back...

Need to be able to alter stuff... more than what is make it a new skill.

Take those Stinking Repair deeds OUT of the game. Put in a nice box at each NPC vendor location such as Smith shops, Tailor shops, and near the Soulforges.... especially the Queens forge. This box should allow a player to place an item in it that they want worked on..... The player would then decide what they want done with it..... ie Imbued, altered, repaired, etc. Then the PLAYER would choose a crafter..... either a player or an NPC to do such a task.. and then the player and the chosen crafter would work out a price for such a deed... of course the NPC's would charge a bunch or a little but they also would suffer the fail rate of any crafter of their skill level. But this would allow players to get what they want done and allow more in-game interaction between players but also since NPCs can do the work too would be ok in off hours when less folk are available.

And I'd put in new recipes to towns... offering special items that can only be crafted by crafters "loyal" to that town. Also I'd do much, much more with the banner system and add more things folk can do as a community if they are part of a PLAYER run town. Adding banking, stables and other things to the banner system. As well as special gifts and titles to folk in player run towns so they can turn in things to earn loyalty in their own township. This would greatly encourage folk to work together more. Also player run towns can choose what recipies and rewards are added to their banner for local crafters from a list of special new craftables. Give folk reasons to work together.

I really like the idea about adding difficulty to mobs based on the number of players who are there. Tired of the soloistic way the game is going.

With the Chaos/Order system I'd create town wars... and such... add in games and things to make it fun. Add tournaments to the new dueling pits that have some sort of prizes as well as leader boards and so on... such as a cool named robe someone could win saying they were the winner of the "Fall Mage Tournament".... to encourage more folk to actually use them.

And I'd encourage and allow the EMs to work with the local communities helping to fuel local RP on the shard.... There are many ways that EM's could help build storylines and plots with spawns and battles and monsters.... as well as deco and such for special events put on by players.

 

[Tazar]

NO.......U R WRONG........SHARD GATES IS EASY OPTION 1
USING THE 2 MOST POPULATED SHARDS AND INTERGRATING THE LESSER SHARDS...AND WE ARE ONY TALKING 100 PEOPLE N A LOT OF THE SHARDS WITH A NEW LAND / AREA OF HOUSE PLACEMENT[CASTLE FOR A CASTLE ...18 FOR A 18 ETC ETC] IS ANOTHER

AND B4 ANYONE SAYS LUNA.....LUNA SUCKS....MAKE WBB THE TRADING CAPITAL AGAIN...BLOW UP LUNA [like we did with magincia] AND MY LUNA HOUSE WITH IT

So you are going to take the 2 most populated shards and move folk there? So people from Great Lakes, LS, Cats, Chessy all get dumped on Atlantic with no room to replace their castle? Their player run towns are lost? The history is lost?

Sorry - that proposal's been shot down again and again...

And what about the people that left game for a while intending to return? They just lose everything because they weren't active when the transfer hit? Your plan would cause a lot more problems than it would solve...

 

[ShadowTrauma]

Minus a few negative posts here and there quite a few people put a great deal of effort and thought into their posts and I appreciate that, they were great reads.

 

[Tazar]

I think one thing that would help is quests and events that are setup for group play. Lately a lot (town loyalty, etc.) have really been more solo-play things. I remember the Halloween event from 2008... people had to help each other. People cross-shard traded for items and spring-cleaning tickets, etc. The thing needed most are things that bring groups and people together.

 

[yadiman]

1) A mausoleum dungeon in old haven. After completing any 50 skill quest, a follow-up quest is given for players to go to this new dungeon that combines all east coast shards and west coast. Players cannot trade there. New loot system is used with additional unique items. The PvM content there will be good for skilling from 50-100.

2) Daily quest NPCs near all banks that announce a recent travesty caused by {insert dungeon/spawn} Artifact and rare drops will be increased 2x. Also remove extreme difficulties caused by more people (ex: Cora) Also, increase base chance for getting items, and perhaps lower the effect of luck. Remove the reduced chance of drops just because more people are getting loot. Remove instances... Medusa would spawn after placing the eggs on the altar. Lower respawn times to 5 minutes.

3) Order / Chaos town sieges. One siege may be active every 2 hours. Whichever side has fewer holdings, receives more help from NPCs based upon the # of active participants in the siege. Also, I still like my limited # / timed champ spawn idea even tho it got flamed. If a new player wants to pvp, what advice would you give him? Yew? not a chance a gamer that is new to UO will like running, ganking, guard-wacking, house-hiding Yew pvp. Maybe tell them to do a current champ spawn and wait for someone to show up?....

4) Add more strategy and timing to combat. Monster is swinging his big axe? Activate your 1.5 sec parry ability that uses stamina. Casters can activate a short duration absorb spell. Boss is casting his huge AE spell? better run away. < This one doesn't really bring people together but it makes the game more engaging.

 

[NuSair]

Community is a matter of opinion....
Set up the chat system so that you aren't just limited to 1 channel at a time. Also, set up different scrolls/chat windows that you can filter chats too.
Allow direct /tells to characters
Active moderation of general/server wide chat channels
Design dungeons/encounters that require party and class arch types.
Fix looting. My sampire still doesn't get looting rights at times when I duo with my wife or other people.
Set up sieges of player castles/keeps and raids of towns- player castles/keeps can be damaged and need to be repaired.
Allow faction/order & choas fighting in Trammel
Separation of guild ranks and actually give abilities/powers that matter to those ranks- example- ronin cannot attack/steal from other guild members, warlords can summon/start guild level raids/events.
Set up a guild bank and special guild halls/housing.

A lot of what the community used to be was ruined by scripting. A lot of people have mule crafters skilled up by scripting, have millions and millions of resources that they will probably never run out of. All you have to do is hit a couple of well stocked IDOCs and you can see it. A few of weeks ago I got over 5 million frostwood from an IDOC. Granted, I wish it was Heartwood .

 

[THP]

bull ****.............10,000 players need to b brought into the same playing arena......end of..........and yes 10.000 is a good estimate based on recent global activities....probably too much but i like to be the opitimist !!!!!!!!!! [whatever]

 

[cazador]

I think this has been gone over 100 times no server merge will ever happen...due to history if shards housing etc..but I think it has to do with noone will need to buy xfer tokens anymore I'm sure that's a huge revenue they aren't willing to part ways with just yet

 

[Gospel]

1) A mausoleum dungeon in old haven. After completing any 50 skill quest, a follow-up quest is given for players to go to this new dungeon that combines all east coast shards and west coast. Players cannot trade there. New loot system is used with additional unique items. The PvM content there will be good for skilling from 50-100.

2) Daily quest NPCs near all banks that announce a recent travesty caused by {insert dungeon/spawn} Artifact and rare drops will be increased 2x. Also remove extreme difficulties caused by more people (ex: Cora) Also, increase base chance for getting items, and perhaps lower the effect of luck. Remove the reduced chance of drops just because more people are getting loot. Remove instances... Medusa would spawn after placing the eggs on the altar. Lower respawn times to 5 minutes.

3) Order / Chaos town sieges. One siege may be active every 2 hours. Whichever side has fewer holdings, receives more help from NPCs based upon the # of active participants in the siege. Also, I still like my limited # / timed champ spawn idea even tho it got flamed. If a new player wants to pvp, what advice would you give him? Yew? not a chance a gamer that is new to UO will like running, ganking, guard-wacking, house-hiding Yew pvp. Maybe tell them to do a current champ spawn and wait for someone to show up?....

4) Add more strategy and timing to combat. Monster is swinging his big axe? Activate your 1.5 sec parry ability that uses stamina. Casters can activate a short duration absorb spell. Boss is casting his huge AE spell? better run away. < This one doesn't really bring people together but it makes the game more engaging.

This thread is about bringing community together. I'm not sure how any of these will do so. I will admit though, I love the idea of "dungeon of the day." That would get me personally out and hunting quite a bit.

 

[yadiman]

This thread is about bringing community together. I'm not sure how any of these will do so. I will admit though, I love the idea of "dungeon of the day." That would get me personally out and hunting quite a bit.

Well for #1, I meant UO community, not shard specific. Anything that helps newbies, helps everyone. #2 brings people to the same dungeon with a common goal. #3 requires more organization for the town sieges

 

[Lord Frodo]

This thread is about bringing community together. I'm not sure how any of these will do so. I will admit though, I love the idea of "dungeon of the day." That would get me personally out and hunting quite a bit.

I think you could apply this statement to a majority of the posts in this thread.

 

[Gospel]

Well for #1, I meant UO community, not shard specific. Anything that helps newbies, helps everyone. #2 brings people to the same dungeon with a common goal. #3 requires more organization for the town sieges

I appreciate the efforts, but it doesn't look like you really have a clear concept of the UO community or what it means to bring community together. There's quite a bit more to it than simply giving them something to do in the same screen space.

To appeal to a large audience you require something that a diverse audience desires for one reason or another. EM events are an example, although maybe not a great one. The holiday cross shard trading certainly holds a bit of the magic for bringing community actively in contact with one another.

Start by looking at other games and the devices they use to encourage group play. While most games are quite different from UO, some of the basic principles could be broken down to their fundamental elements and rebuilt with UO and our unique community in mind.

And finally the dev team's greatest opponent is the community itself. Many of the players in this game would prefer deelopment went backwards rather than forward. Many players get offended with anything is change from the "old" way. Read a page or two of Uhall and you'll be overwhelmed by it. So as a final note, maybe the community as a whole could try helping themselves and stop waiting for the devs to do the impossible by trying to please every individual.

 

[Gospel]

NO.......U R WRONG........SHARD GATES IS EASY OPTION 1
USING THE 2 MOST POPULATED SHARDS AND INTERGRATING THE LESSER SHARDS...AND WE ARE ONY TALKING 100 PEOPLE N A LOT OF THE SHARDS WITH A NEW LAND / AREA OF HOUSE PLACEMENT[CASTLE FOR A CASTLE ...18 FOR A 18 ETC ETC] IS ANOTHER

AND B4 ANYONE SAYS LUNA.....LUNA SUCKS....MAKE WBB THE TRADING CAPITAL AGAIN...BLOW UP LUNA [like we did with magincia] AND MY LUNA HOUSE WITH IT

Trying to steer clear of personal insults gets harder and harder every time you throw up one of these unintelligible word-vomit posts. I've never seen you post anything that had any sort of value to it whatsoever. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, its just that your are not only all bad, but hard on the eyes as well.

Please take a few minutes to apply whatever intellect remains after your years of psychedelic drug abuse and put together a post that actually has some relevant contribution to the conversation.

 

[yadiman]

I appreciate the efforts, but it doesn't look like you really have a clear concept of the UO community or what it means to bring community together. There's quite a bit more to it than simply giving them something to do in the same screen space.

To appeal to a large audience you require something that a diverse audience desires for one reason or another. EM events are an example, although maybe not a great one. The holiday cross shard trading certainly holds a bit of the magic for bringing community actively in contact with one another.

Start by looking at other games and the devices they use to encourage group play. While most games are quite different from UO, some of the basic principles could be broken down to their fundamental elements and rebuilt with UO and our unique community in mind.

And finally the dev team's greatest opponent is the community itself. Many of the players in this game would prefer deelopment went backwards rather than forward. Many players get offended with anything is change from the "old" way. Read a page or two of Uhall and you'll be overwhelmed by it. So as a final note, maybe the community as a whole could try helping themselves and stop waiting for the devs to do the impossible by trying to please every individual.

and your better suggestion is ____ where??
You even stated the the community is the dev teams greatest opponent, so how are you helping by being negative? Expecting the community to suddenly change and make the game attractive for new players is a fool's hope. Bringing people together (for whatever reason) can build a community. People aren't going to socialize and build a community by doing dungeons by themselves, and a lot of current encounters encourage solo play.

 

[Tanivar]

And finally the dev team's greatest opponent is the community itself. Many of the players in this game would prefer deelopment went backwards rather than forward. Many players get offended with anything is change from the "old" way.

Actually many of this group your referring to would just prefer that the 'development that goes forward' but what proves to be a classic example of a 'brainfart', could get removed from the game instead of added to year after year doing more harm to the game to the point players finally give up due to the loss of fun and leave for greener pastures taking their monthly fees with them. 'Change' is not a problem. Screwing up the game with bad ideas like AoS and then adding to the development of such mistakes year after year and talking of it as further 'good development' is the problem that 'group' you refer to complain about.

Your clearly part of the Pom-Pom Waver group. Anything the Dev team comes up with is good in your eyes. Shoot, You probably consider the damage and destruction caused by that superstorm Sandy a good thing because "It motivated people to work together!!!!" in their struggle to simply survive. Fortunately people who wave their pom-poms no matter what are usually kept out of positions where they can harm society and the rest of us can go on dealing with reality and protect them from themselves.


You would think that the newer Devs, hearing the playerbase complain and seeing the playerbase shrink as time goes by, would do publishes to move away from such screw ups like AoS and slowly undo past Dev Team blunders. So far no such luck, and the player base continues to get more tired of it all and move on to other games.

 

[Borric]

How would you bring the community together?

With cattle prods and ropes.

 

[cazador]

Adding new items unfortunately is the only way to keep people playing..so with that said revamp what is currently in game not make them more obsolete...same doom arties..random properties..different levels...will keep people playing for a LONG time..as for making people work together..eh I don't know...

 

[Zosimus]

The key to community is the players themselves. Players have to use the content that is given to them and it has to be fun and enjoyable. Nobody enjoys a grind. A game should be about fun and great content.

This also includes items. It's ok to add new items or revamp some but at what cost which it frustrates a player? If a player finally gets their template right, their toon suit just right and then newer items are added with new content. That makes some of that players items obsolete then all that time and energy spent to the player feels wasted. Imbuing did fix some of those issues but players do like to use newer items because that what pixel crack addiction does.

UO is more about items though. UO is about the game and the love for it.

So what can the community and the devs do to help strengthen a healthier and happy community?

1) Address ideas and concerns on the boards in a constructive manner as a poster. Not in an unconstructive manner like this game blows or this and that sucks. Not everything is catered to just to you. One person likes may be another dislikes. That just how life is. Be open to other ideas by putting yourself as a third person reading others suggestions. Build upon others ideas. It's ok to disagree with others suggestions. Don't put them down for it and result into name calling like trammies, noobs, idiots and such.

2) Listen to the community base and see what can be improved on by the devs. The dev 's have to listen to the community and try to pick the best direction the players want.

3) Patience is a virtue. Both sides have to be patient with each other. A good community rep from both sides and communication helps ease any tensions. When communication becomes next to nothing then the mob begins to raise it torches and pitchforks. So both sides have to communicate better.

4) Not all players post. We all have to remember that. If a player feels newer blood needs to put some ideas in and they know 1 to 8 people who comes up with great ideas but don't post then they should encourage them to post here. It also brings more players into the conversation to speak here on the forums. Many players just go play the game and log off. I know many that would not post on the forums or even come to the site. So how many do you all know? Add that up then maybe things would not look so bleak all the time to some.

Over all the key to a healthier community is the players themselves. UO was big about Role Players. There was a huge presence at one time on many shards. Same goes for Player Killers. I remember when Fel was busy and fun. Uo is still fun or none of us would be having this discussion. Tram and Fel players are both vital for a healthy community. Not just one side. So everybody has to be open to ideas that help the community and not just one side.

There are many ex players that still talk about UO in other games. I have had many discussions with players in GW2 and what they loved about the game. Some people move onto other games. Mike O'Brien the cofounder and President of ArenaNet stated on msnbc how UO has influenced the gaming community and himself. UO is very unique in it's own way. Its 15 years old and there is still a strong presence of UO in many gaming communities. Because some players leave some here forget there is still a very important player base here in UO still. Work with each other, talk, be constructive, don't worry about other games and what they are doing. Focus on what is important. UO and the community. Everybody isn't going to be happy and don't like change but those are bumps in the road that any gaming community has.

You all should be very proud that UO is still here and the reason why is because of all of you that are loyal and love the game. That in itself is huge in a gaming community. I applaud everyone of you for your efforts to make UO a better community.

 

[Gospel]

Actually many of this group your referring to would just prefer that the 'development that goes forward' but what proves to be a classic example of a 'brainfart', could get removed from the game instead of added to year after year doing more harm to the game to the point players finally give up due to the loss of fun and leave for greener pastures taking their monthly fees with them. 'Change' is not a problem. Screwing up the game with bad ideas like AoS and then adding to the development of such mistakes year after year and talking of it as further 'good development' is the problem that 'group' you refer to complain about.

Your clearly part of the Pom-Pom Waver group. Anything the Dev team comes up with is good in your eyes. Shoot, You probably consider the damage and destruction caused by that superstorm Sandy a good thing because "It motivated people to work together!!!!" in their struggle to simply survive. Fortunately people who wave their pom-poms no matter what are usually kept out of positions where they can harm society and the rest of us can go on dealing with reality and protect them from themselves.


You would think that the newer Devs, hearing the playerbase complain and seeing the playerbase shrink as time goes by, would do publishes to move away from such screw ups like AoS and slowly undo past Dev Team blunders. So far no such luck, and the player base continues to get more tired of it all and move on to other games.

Ah, here we have a perfect example of the "classic" community I'm talking about. Generally the insult uses to dismiss a valid opinion is "fanboy" though, not "Pom-Pom waver" (wtf?). If all you can come up with aftee 15 years is "AOS SUCKED!!" Then I don't think I'll miss out on much by dismissing you as another tragic negative nancy constantly wishing for the "old days" while shelling out $15 a month. You have no answers and no insight, but thanks for supporting the game.

 

[yadiman]

Ah, here we have a perfect example of the "classic" community I'm talking about. Generally the insult uses to dismiss a valid opinion is "fanboy" though, not "Pom-Pom waver" (wtf?). If all you can come up with aftee 15 years is "AOS SUCKED!!" Then I don't think I'll miss out on much by dismissing you as another tragic negative nancy constantly wishing for the "old days" while shelling out $15 a month. You have no answers and no insight, but thanks for supporting the game.

Um, how bout you answer MY post which clearly shows how YOU have no answers and no insight, and are only being negative. Pls leave.

 

[Gospel]

Um, how bout you answer MY post which clearly shows how YOU have no answers and no insight, and are only being negative. Pls leave.

All your post illustrates is your narrow view of the real issues and larger picture. This isn't a junior high essay writing 100 words on how Martin Luther King Jr changed America. Every single one of your half-assed ideas only effects a fraction of the players. If you want to bring the community together as a whole you need to broaden your ideas past your own narrow sliver of what you personally would enjoy.

Asking me to leave was a nice touch though, you're definitely out to build community relationships like that.

 

[yadiman]

All your post illustrates is your narrow view of the real issues and larger picture. This isn't a junior high essay writing 100 words on how Martin Luther King Jr changed America. Every single one of your half-assed ideas only effects a fraction of the players. If you want to bring the community together as a whole you need to broaden your ideas past your own narrow sliver of what you personally would enjoy.

Asking me to leave was a nice touch though, you're definitely out to build community relationships like that.

Your. Suggestion. Where??????

 

[CovenantX]

I need to start bringing my Troll Slayer with me here...

 

[Tanivar]

Ah, here we have a perfect example of the "classic" community I'm talking about. Generally the insult uses to dismiss a valid opinion is "fanboy" though, not "Pom-Pom waver" (wtf?). If all you can come up with aftee 15 years is "AOS SUCKED!!" Then I don't think I'll miss out on much by dismissing you as another tragic negative nancy constantly wishing for the "old days" while shelling out $15 a month. You have no answers and no insight, but thanks for supporting the game.

Thirteen years in my case

There isn't much to really complain about with UO. Overall it's an excellent game with few glaring faults, with the humungous bug list currently being dealt with by the Devs being one of them. AoS was an Act of Stupidity that really hurt this game. EA saved UO back in 2000 by creating Trammel and stopping the drastic loss of players due to PKing by giving those players somewhere to go that they could have fun for their monthly fee, instead of being fun for others for their monthly fee.

This game has gotten more and more obsessed with items since EA cast the shadow of AoS over UO, There are too many items and numbers to keep track of. UO is more grind and hassle than fun. I've shifted my play to Siege. Less focus on items, more community in spite of far less players, and a definite lack of the asshats who exist and grief production shards. PKers with class, after experiencing Fel my first few years playing, I never would have thought it possible.

By the way, open your mind and be less fixated in your opinions.

 

[Gospel]

Thirteen years in my case

There isn't much to really complain about with UO. Overall it's an excellent game with few glaring faults, with the humungous bug list currently being dealt with by the Devs being one of them. AoS was an Act of Stupidity that really hurt this game. EA saved UO back in 2000 by creating Trammel and stopping the drastic loss of players due to PKing by giving those players somewhere to go that they could have fun for their monthly fee, instead of being fun for others for their monthly fee.

This game has gotten more and more obsessed with items since EA cast the shadow of AoS over UO, There are too many items and numbers to keep track of. UO is more grind and hassle than fun. I've shifted my play to Siege. Less focus on items, more community in spite of far less players, and a definite lack of the asshats who exist and grief production shards. PKers with class, after experiencing Fel my first few years playing, I never would have thought it possible.

By the way, open your mind and be less fixated in your opinions.

UO reached its peak subscriber base AFTER age of shadows. From a developer prospective, that is certainly not an act of stupidity. You can argue that if it makes you feel intelligent but facts are hard to argue against. Many players believe the introduction of Trammel ruined the game. You seem to think it was a good idea? Most players disagree. That you would endorse Trammel and in the same statement mention you prefer Siege is an odd contradiction. These are 2 massive holes in your logic, and don't really make for a cohesive statement.

Look guys, I'm glad a few of you are enjoying the discussion but don't come pointing fingers at me looking to start personal flame contests. All you are doing is proving my point; the community's worst enemy is itself.

 

[yadiman]

^^ ignore useless poster

More suggestions:

1) Add pets that require multiple people to tame, and not just to help heal each other, but allow taming at the same time to increase chances significantly. However, it should not be impossible to tame solo since low pop shards might not have any other option.

2) Add resource quests. A quest NPC has recently heard of some precious resources in a certain area. *gives map* use cartography. Once there, players harvest resources but are attacked by NPC raiders and monsters. Each player has his own allocation of resources, but the faster a group can deal with the mobs, the more they can harvest. Each location should last an hour or 2.

 

[Tanivar]

UO reached its peak subscriber base AFTER age of shadows. From a developer prospective, that is certainly not an act of stupidity. You can argue that if it makes you feel intelligent but facts are hard to argue against.

Many players believe the introduction of Trammel ruined the game. You seem to think it was a good idea? Most players disagree.

Those 'Most players' were likely part of the PK crowd that was driving customers out of the game so fast the Devs had to do something fast to stop the loss of paying customers. Sure the PKers thought giving other players somewhere to go that was safe was a bad idea. It ruined their fun, but it did save UO from cancellation due to to few paying customers. If things had stayed the same there would have eventually only been PvPers & PKers in the game and the PKers would have quit because they wouldn't be having any fun. Consider how vastly more populated Tram has been compared to Fel all these years. Should tell you something.

That you would endorse Trammel and in the same statement mention you prefer Siege is an odd contradiction. These are 2 massive holes in your logic, and don't really make for a cohesive statement.

It's hardly a contradiction. The PKer crowd on Siege doesn't obsessively kill other players. Oh there's a couple really into hunting crafters and such who can't really defend themselves due to all the skill points dedicated to non-combat skills, but even they don't make themselves a problem for others.The people on Siege have settled into a happy medium, everyone has their fun without ruining the fun of others. I get hunted at times as the PKers have their fun, and I get my fun making finding me and nailing my hide to a tree a challenge for them. Since settling into Siege a month back, I've been dirtnapped once. Damian Softstep nailed my hide. <bows to him> May the next nailing be an entertaining royal pita for him to pull off.

 

[Tanivar]

A couple basic requirements for a fun event should be:

1) Have several staff helping the EM. One should be assigned to teleporting blatant griefers who are working to ruin the event straight into the bottom of Destard with all runes & runebooks going into their bankbox and their insurance cancelled and blocked. Dead dipstick unless their as good as they think they are. Your there at the event to have fun with others, fine, your there to have fun ruining the fun of others at the event, you suddenly find yourself in deep dragon droppings.

2) The blessed Event Memorabilia item is given out as you pass through the last portal to the event and is tied to the account receiving it. It can't leave that account shy of trashing it. This would help eliminate those who are only there for a $$ka-ching$$ item and that really have no other interest in the event. Less players involved, true, but those that are there will more likely be there for the fun, and the smaller crowd would ease the lag problem.

 

[Zosimus]

Stay on the topic and the bickering stops now. If you don't like others suggestions then build on it "CONSTRUCTIVELY" or don't reply to the poster at all you disagree with.

 

[THP]

okes you guys/gals win.....we can stop as we are .....we will stick with a couple of pretty full shards.. a few ok shards and some pretty empty shards...of course we dont wanna spoil the history.....

But in my mind ..sorry... but a few of the smaller shards really could do with a shard gate to other smaller shards...everyone keeps there own castle then and the fond memory of there shards past history.....was just a simple suggestion to link the lesser shards very easily done iam sure ......