When I am talking about "concrete information", I mean solid stats, gathered by the devs on things like kd ratios for templates with taming vs kd ratios for templates with no taming, what the skill breakdowns for the various templates are, and their comparative kd ratios. I'm talking about game hours spent pvp'ing for the various templates in comparison to each other.
They got devs doing that on your planet then?
It can be done, and it should be done. It could start off with something as basic as adding up all the skills in the database, and seeing which ones are more common among active players. Another simple thing that could easily be done is when a player kills a player, put the skill sets into a database, this should include all the players that contributed to the kill. That basic functionality is already built into UO, and shouldn't be that difficult to code.
The data collecting itself shouldn't require high performance storage, so external hard drives should be all that is required if data storage space is an issue, and as the data is already being collected in the code, I don't think storing it should degrade server performance.
I obviously don't know exactly technically what is going on with the server code in UO, or what kind of hardware they are using, what kind of database, or what resources are available to them. But from what little I do know, it seems to me that the simple suggestions I have made here should be possible, and
that is the kind of information game changing decisions should be based on, not the frustrated tirades of the few that post on forums like these, and relative to the overall player base, extremely few offer input here.
I fully appreciate that, however I'm trying to listen to both sides here, and hoping to get some meaningful discussion between the "all kill = no skill" brigade posts. I know about the PvPers side of things when they meet you guys, but the only way you'll really get support is to ensure people know your vulnerabilities. All I can think of now is the less reputable semi-cheat type methods that may be out there. Or the quality of reds even at Yew gate has diminished to the point where they truly suck, by missing something utterly obvious
Wenchy
Dealing with any skilled player one on one is always a tough fight, and it should be, and that is why the guard zones around Yew attract pvp, why they are good, and why they should stay - they allow one on one fights even when one side outnumbers the other. I'm talking about situations here specifically where the reds outnumber those at the gate, I find that generally when the blues outnumber the reds, the pvp moves away from the gates pretty quickly, unless the reds are much more skilled than the blues at the gate, which obviously can, and does, happen.
But as for specific tactics, I find that pvp at Yew gate is a bit like a chess game when I am there, and it is one of the reasons why I enjoy it so much. There is a psychological game going on that does more to determine the outcome of the combat, than the combat itself. This is part of the reason why pvp at Yew gate is so different from any other kind of pvp, both sides are continually trying to lay traps for the other, and the tactics and strategies that will be successful will vary wildly depending on the templates, real player skill levels, and numbers of players involved.
That is another reason why pvp at Yew gate is so interesting and addictive, and why it is really tough to answer questions about what specific tactics will be successful against a particular template, there is no one specific answer, all the variables, and combinations of variables, of the battlefield will entail different answers to that question. And if my suggestion were implemented, it wouldn't eliminate the usefulness of bards at Yew gate, it would simply require them to either have some real pvp skills in addition to their bard skills, or require that they be protected.
That was why I would recommend that bards be flagged
aggressor to the player who's pets they attack, not criminal, and also why I would recommend that bard skills be allowed to affect players in some way, so that they would be useful in pvp for more than just attacking pets. That would open up another entire array of tactical and strategic choices and allow bards to be fully integrated into the pvp community.
As I posted earlier, I love choices, and I want
more choices in pvp, not less, which is one of the reasons why the prejudice against tamers in pvp annoys me so severely. Those kinds of attitudes, if they are acted on, serve only to limit choices, and make the entire game less interesting, and in the end, less fun.
