Proposal to merge Europa and Drachenfels

[navarthelol]

I would like to propose that Drachenfels should be Merged with Europa as there is no longer a sufficient player base on Drachenfels to support a positive team game play environment. Europa is also fairly quiet itself and has a weak economy. Further advantages for players include:

• Easier to find groups for hunting
• Easier to find an active guild for PvP and the newly introduced VVV system
• Very minimal impact on latency experienced by players as the servers are close regardless
• Easier to coordinate and execute planned events with a much larger involvement of players than currently present on drachenfels.
• New players introduced will have a more complete experience from the game resulting from the larger playerbase than presently available if they just chose Drachenfels
• Old players more likely to return for longer periods of time if there are more players.

Please consider this proposal and feel free to post any feedback you have.

 

[Vor]

People won't want to have their homes, unique locations, player memorials etc lost.

 

[Theron]

People won't want to have their homes, unique locations, player memorials etc lost.

This ^

Other than that I think it would be good as well.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

People won't want to have their homes, unique locations, player memorials etc lost.

If they ever did something like this the only fair way to do it would be to shut down both shards and open a fresh new one and give everyone a clean shot. I don't see them closing shards, but it would be the best way IMHO. Every character on the affected shards gets a transfer token, hit the switch, and watch the server burn

 

[Lexfixr]

If they ever did something like this the only fair way to do it would be to shut down both shards and open a fresh new one and give everyone a clean shot. I don't see them closing shards, but it would be the best way IMHO. Every character on the affected shards gets a transfer token, hit the switch, and watch the server burn

easy for you to say you dont live here telling us to give up our homes/castles etc just doesnt wash If we had a permanent gate between the 2 shards I would consider that as a compromise but not necessarily a good idea

 

[Spiritless]

The idea of 'merges' is going nowhere because of the housing situation. Closing both is probably even more ridiculous. What would you do if you were told you're gonna lose your house and community on your current shard and to go play elsewhere? For many, they just wouldn't bother. All it would ever achieve is hastening the population drop without adding any significant benefit in terms of attracting players back.

I can see why people suggest this, however. The fundamental idea behind it is sound. It would be great these days if there was a magical solution whereby you could concentrate the remaining players in such a way that everyone could all play together. In reality, UO's active population could probably all fit onto a single server these days. It's just so difficult to achieve in practice.

My only ideas for something remotely workable would be:

* Specific PvP arenas/maps/battlegrounds separate from Felucca which are server agnostic. That is to say, people could join them and participate regardless of their home shard.

* Utilizing a 'merge'-type system for PvM encounters/dungeons. For example, when entering Shame in Europa and Shame in Drachenfels, or wherever, both players are ported to a unified instance of Shame which can accommodate players from many different shards.

* Illshenar could have a similar unified server concept as it has no player housing.

* Alternatively/additionally there could be a "hub" area with moongates to "Atlantic", "Europa", "Drachenfels", "Origin" etc. and people could hop around at will. Probably the #1 reason this won't happen is because it would kill the shard transfer revenue, though.

So yeah, I think there are places which could be 'merged' but entire shard merges are totally out of the question. If any merging is to be done, it would have to be very specific areas or places and done smartly to avoid annoying people. Besides, some people actually enjoy quieter areas and the concept of them having to share a dungeon or Illshenar with people from multiple shards probably sounds equally horrifying.

 

[Capt. Lucky]

easy for you to say you dont live here telling us to give up our homes/castles etc just doesnt wash If we had a permanent gate between the 2 shards I would consider that as a compromise but not necessarily a good idea

Oh I'm just being hypothetical. I could see this as a consideration for about half the shards in UO. I didn't bring the idea up, but it's not like it isn't in the back of the minds of a lot of people. I imagine while people are fighting it out in Luna you could put a castle about anywhere you wished lol. Putting an 18x18 isn't hard at all on Great Lakes and I imagine it wouldn't be tough even on a server merge these days. I think your problem with the "gate" idea is it would cut into EA's transfer token business, so I think that's a tough sell. It doesn't seem to cost EA anymore to run numerous shards so I doubt they're really motivated to do anything with it and upset a large numbers of players. I imagine it would be about 50/50 for and against and they wouldn't want to upset half the players affected. I'm well established on Great Lakes, but I would find server mergers pretty exciting. As long as I could bring my important stuff with me.

 

[Piotr]

 

[Captn Norrington]

For the activity level and community of both shards, yes it would be a good idea. For people's personal belongings and houses, no, bad idea, since everyone would lose their houses. It'll never happen either way though, the populations not high enough on either of them for the devs to actually gain anything by doing this.

 

[mellifluant]

I'm pretty new to UO (comparatively with most) so am not as invested, but I'd honestly like to see a huge gigantic merger down to 7-10 shards. Start fresh. Each char could have their transfer crate with all their goods, and everyone would be affected equally.
Something like 3 US shards (Western, Mountain, Eastern), 3 shards through Asia, 1 in Europe, 1 in Australia. 27 is a ridiculous # of shards, especially with a long-since declined # of active accounts.

 

[Eärendil]

What the hell are you talking about? Who are you, Mr Visitor? Me and my friends are playing Drachenfels 99 % of our time and we have about 5-7 group events with 25+ people joining publicly EACH WEEK!

I suggest you should get some information about DF before writing nonsense here: Please look at Frarcs Events, DK-events, Ally Events...

This sentence "as there is no longer a sufficient player base on Drachenfels to support a positive team game play environment" is the biggest rubish I ever read in this forum, my dear strange friend! Ask Dr. Alzheimer, who is REALLY a WELL REPUTED MAN on DF!

We will, of course, not consider this nonsense. And the devs will not consider it either, cause... bah, read just what has been postet ALL THE YEARS here about merging. They will never merge. Thank god!

And there is NO TRUE DRACHENFELSIAN who wants to be merged with Europa!

No THANKS!

 

[Eärendil]

For the activity level and community of both shards, yes it would be a good idea. For people's personal belongings and houses, no, bad idea, since everyone would lose their houses. It'll never happen either way though, the populations not high enough on either of them for the devs to actually gain anything by doing this.

BS, my fiend. I like you very much, but you are on the wrong track. Heck, can please only people reply here, who have REAL and DEEP knowledge of DF and experience of its current state? We are FINE!!!

Public Events with up to 50 players every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday AND Sunday...

WHAT ARE YOU ALL TALKING ABOUT???

 

[James Moriarty]

I would close both my accounts and just not come back to UO its that simple. I have 17 years worth of items on Drach and Europa and castles on both shards.

 

[Dodger]

Dump everyone from your rag tag survivor shards at fel yew gate on Atlantic, dead men need no housing.

 

[Eärendil]

just have a look here...

www.knuckleheads.dk....

normal people even dont have the time to attend all the events we have...

*Shakes head in anger*

Stop this nonsense, care for your own shards and for more important issues!

 

[Captn Norrington]

BS, my fiend. I like you very much, but you are on the wrong track. Heck, can please only people reply here, who have REAL and DEEP knowledge of DF and experience of its current state? We are FINE!!!

Public Events with up to 50 players every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday AND Sunday...

WHAT ARE YOU ALL TALKING ABOUT???

Most of what I know about DF and EU comes from a guildie of mine who used to play there, I suppose the information could be innacurate, but he said the entire active population of DF is only about 20 people. and EU's is only about 35. For the events, I'm pretty much positive at least half those people are cross sharders just trying to get rares hehe.

Like I said, I could definetely be wrong Wouldn't be the first time lol.

Edit: Ohh you meant player events, I misunderstood. Hmm, I guess DF is alot more active than I thought.

 

[Eärendil]

I really like you Captain! Very much! Tell your friends, he is completely wrong. FAR FAR more than 20, 50 or even 100. I know ALOT of people on DF. He should just join ally-events over a year or two... he will see!

 

[Captn Norrington]

I really like you Captain! Very much! Tell your friends, he is completely wrong. FAR FAR more than 20, 50 or even 100. I know ALOT of people on DF. He should just join ally-events over a year or two... he will see!

I'll definetely tell him Thanks for the information, I'll try to attend some DF events soon, always looking for great people to have fun with.

 

[Petra Fyde]

We have been down this road so very many times! Drachenfels is, in fact, a very active shard, so is Europa. Try WBB at 7pm UK sometime.
http://uo2.stratics.com/posts/category/shard-news/drachenfels-news

Time to call a halt