Suggestion: 15th Anniversary Shard.

[Selurnoraa]

I am not here to start a debate on what the definition of a true 'classic' shard is. I was watching a Q&A video on youtube where the issue was addressed. Since it seem's the main issue appears to be the definition of what classic entitles, I just wanted to suggest a starting point so the player's can prove that it is a worthwhile endeavour.

What I suggest is just a pure Age of Shadows server, none of the SE / ML / Stygian Abyss / High Sea's expansion. I thought about this in detail and decided that going any further past AoS would require a lot of effort and commitment then what maybe is currently available. While in many minds it's not a perfect road to the past, allow us the players to step up and show that classic server's of any variation will have sustained success for this game.

Releasing a new server on the 15th anniversary will show players looking in from the outside, that UO is still willing to expand and grow it's franchise. I do understand that alot of people believe that a graphics overhaul is necessary for growth, that is a topic for other discussions as simply it could not be ready to go by the anniversary.

In order for EA to maximize profits on this though I believe they would need to add items to the UOstore. I am sure with more player imput we could make this list great and hopefully micro-transactions like this would allow EA to invest in UO's future.

1. Soulstones - everyone loves soulstones and while at first might be a slower seller they will pick up.
2. Ethereals - Due to lack of available veteran rewards these will be a hot commodity, I suggest that new models be added and on these the account age requirement be removed so all players can enjoy them. Some idea's I have (Lava Lizard / Spider / Giant Toad / Scorpion / Magic Carpet / Bake-Kitsune)
3. An Additional House per account - This is a feature I am sure many players want to see ingame, My thoughts is that with a new server a landrush will occur and all players including established veterans might want in on the action. Not wanting to give up their primary housing this feature would allow them to have an additional house and keep this existing ones. I believe the 1 house per shard rule should still apply, and that this would just allow a player to have 2 houses/account but still 1 house/server. I cannot think of a better time to implement such a feature.

The main sales of the UOstore would come in the form of Advanced Character tokens and the token that allows Ancient Sam Helm / Royal LEggings of Embers and the Holy Sword to be claimed.

I am probably forgetting some key features this would give to players but here are some highlights that would attract people to coming back.

• A dupe free economy
• Relevance is brought back to more roles in the game, instead of trying to solo everything you need to rely on the community. Whether its a group to do the gauntlet, a group of friends to do a champion spawn or just the local merchant who spends his days BoD trading to supply you with improved gear.
• The Land Rush - Not to force people to buy an additional housing spaceoff the store, I do believe however that the first 3 months of this server house placement should not affect your current situation but after that time these houses placed should start to decay if they are not the primary home on a non entitled account.
• Fresh Start - Just the thought of being everyone's equal is appealing. No players having 100's of million of duped gold. You get the satisfaction of knowing that your hard-earned money is going towards legitimate purchases, and not making those who are selling duped items even richer.

After the players prove that this shard will have sustained success, we can re-open the discussion the of a true classic server, and try to reel back in those players that loved the game in it's purest form. Possibly in the form of a Booster Pack since it may not appeal to everyone. But for now lets start small with just a basic AoS server.

 

[Lord Frodo]

IBTL

 

[o2bavr6]

I am not here to start a debate on what the definition of a true 'classic' shard is. I was watching a Q&A video on youtube where the issue was addressed. Since it seem's the main issue appears to be the definition of what classic entitles, I just wanted to suggest a starting point so the player's can prove that it is a worthwhile endeavour.

What I suggest is just a pure Age of Shadows server, none of the SE / ML / Stygian Abyss / High Sea's expansion. I thought about this in detail and decided that going any further past AoS would require a lot of effort and commitment then what maybe is currently available. While in many minds it's not a perfect road to the past, allow us the players to step up and show that classic server's of any variation will have sustained success for this game.

Releasing a new server on the 15th anniversary will show players looking in from the outside, that UO is still willing to expand and grow it's franchise. I do understand that alot of people believe that a graphics overhaul is necessary for growth, that is a topic for other discussions as simply it could not be ready to go by the anniversary.

In order for EA to maximize profits on this though I believe they would need to add items to the UOstore. I am sure with more player imput we could make this list great and hopefully micro-transactions like this would allow EA to invest in UO's future.

1. Soulstones - everyone loves soulstones and while at first might be a slower seller they will pick up.
2. Ethereals - Due to lack of available veteran rewards these will be a hot commodity, I suggest that new models be added and on these the account age requirement be removed so all players can enjoy them. Some idea's I have (Lava Lizard / Spider / Giant Toad / Scorpion / Magic Carpet / Bake-Kitsune)
3. An Additional House per account - This is a feature I am sure many players want to see ingame, My thoughts is that with a new server a landrush will occur and all players including established veterans might want in on the action. Not wanting to give up their primary housing this feature would allow them to have an additional house and keep this existing ones. I believe the 1 house per shard rule should still apply, and that this would just allow a player to have 2 houses/account but still 1 house/server. I cannot think of a better time to implement such a feature.

The main sales of the UOstore would come in the form of Advanced Character tokens and the token that allows Ancient Sam Helm / Royal LEggings of Embers and the Holy Sword to be claimed.

I am probably forgetting some key features this would give to players but here are some highlights that would attract people to coming back.

• A dupe free economy
• Relevance is brought back to more roles in the game, instead of trying to solo everything you need to rely on the community. Whether its a group to do the gauntlet, a group of friends to do a champion spawn or just the local merchant who spends his days BoD trading to supply you with improved gear.
• The Land Rush - Not to force people to buy an additional housing spaceoff the store, I do believe however that the first 3 months of this server house placement should not affect your current situation but after that time these houses placed should start to decay if they are not the primary home on a non entitled account.
• Fresh Start - Just the thought of being everyone's equal is appealing. No players having 100's of million of duped gold. You get the satisfaction of knowing that your hard-earned money is going towards legitimate purchases, and not making those who are selling duped items even richer.

After the players prove that this shard will have sustained success, we can re-open the discussion the of a true classic server, and try to reel back in those players that loved the game in it's purest form. Possibly in the form of a Booster Pack since it may not appeal to everyone. But for now lets start small with just a basic AoS server.

interesting idea, although I don't see EA putting the effort into it.

I can't speak for others, but for me (a 15+ year vet of UO) Classic means Pre AoS. When the game became item based and not character skill based is when it went down hill.

 

[Cogniac]

...a pure Age of Shadows server...

The moment you said this is the moment this thread was lost.

 

[Woodsman]

Releasing a new server on the 15th anniversary will show players looking in from the outside, that UO is still willing to expand and grow it's franchise. I do understand that alot of people believe that a graphics overhaul is necessary for growth, that is a topic for other discussions as simply it could not be ready to go by the anniversary.

Putting aside that your thoughts on a classic shard, they couldn't get a classic shard of any era with different rules from what we have now setup by the 15th anniversary anyways.

We're talking two and a half months.

And speaking of graphics, yeah, that is how you need to show a willingness to expand and grow UO, because you know what? AOS-era graphics are what we have now, and that ain't exactly pulling a lot of new people into UO every week. Trying to go the cheap way and offering up another shard isn't going to attract people.

 

[Ludes]

I have to agree with 02bavr6 here...
A "classic" shard would have to be pre-Tram.

 

[Uriah Heep]

AoS and past is what people want to throw away with they speak of classic shards.
We have been told on several occasions that the coding and stuff required to do that is lost...( still find it funny how a freesharder can toss up a shard with whatever timeline is desired, but mythic cant)

Plus they already have enough trouble juggling balance issues between fel and trammel...toss on top of that the needs of Siege, and keeping two clients running, I don't see how anyone thinks adding yet another shard/ruleset to the mix will work.

 

[cazador]

Tbh I love prepub 16 shard ideas..but it just isn't profitable anymore..people love pixel crack if it involves more of a skill rather than just items people WILL not come..the busiest time for UO with new entries that I could remember was the launch of AOS..fel Brit was full of people daily..never less than 15-20 people at any moment those are the times of epic spawn raids and guild fights..but again with all the changes that have been made..who wants to play a basic aid w/o the items we have now..it'll just revert to doom camps..it's not advancing the game but bringing it back years..not very likely it'll happen and what do they leave in and take out? 4/6 casting unbalances like the 4/6 chiv mages? No cap on sdi or lmc..what do u leave in or take out? Double specials with single mana uses..toggled dismounts ? Or do u leave it at 2/6 with the current caps? Going classic shard t2a era? To difficult to revert? Recode an entire 10 years of code? It's too difficult..IMHO play free shards if that's what u want..because EA will never do it they don't have the resources to make a major HD overhaul for current players that enjoy the insurance, item reliance type of game..never mind backtrack 10 years..awesome idea tho


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dol'Gorath]

A pure AOS shard? Are you insane? AOS was crap and everyone knows it. It wasn't untill after Samurai Empire that they started correcting the problems AOS brought into this game. At this point any hope for a pre-AOS preferably publish 15 [before powerscrolls] based shard from EA is dead. Theres already tons of player run servers out there with several hundred players each, active GM/Counselor and event support and custom content. EA can't possibly compete in the classic arena with such shards in place so its best just to move on with the current UO.

As for the UO store, Soulstones and Ethies are already available on the store - Legacy Tokens let you claim Soulstones, Charger of the Fallen or a Hooded Shroud of Shadows.

 

[weins201]

 

[Tanivar]

Making a rough Classic Shard wouldn't be hard. Take the Resist numbers off the list of info to be shown when something is looked at, put an averageing number in the Combat Formulas to replace the Resist numbers, and remove the newer skills from the list called up when we click the skills button. Change the skill list default to all skills locked & since we can't see them to choose them, they don't exist on the Shard.

Toss the Fel ruleset on all the Facets, and voila! you have an effectively classic shard . The Devs add new monsters or items? Not a problem. The changes to the Combat Formulas and the displayed info commands deal with the problem.


Maybe we could get a version of this shard with the normal ruleset selection as a close to UO:Ren shard. Would most definitely make this Player one very happy camper.

 

[old gypsy]

Does anyone really believe UO will have another shard? -- Report: BioWare Mythic To Announce New Free-To-Play Title | Stratics Forums

When "Daddy" gets a new baby, it seldom bodes well for the older stepchild.

 

[Tanivar]

Does anyone really believe UO will have another shard? -- Report: BioWare Mythic To Announce New Free-To-Play Title | Stratics Forums

When "Daddy" gets a new baby, it seldom bodes well for the older stepchild.

Considering many left over the creation of Trammel, creating a Tram-free shard could bring back many who left for free-shards to get the game they loved, and perhaps draw in PvP fans from other games because of the large variety of skills you can mix, match, & change as desired. UO has a 15 year buildup of content.

Considering many left over the shift to an item-based game from a skill-based game caused by AoS, creating a UO:Ren shard could bring back many who left for free-shards to get the skill-based game they loved. Not to mention get rid of the conglomeration of items that have been piled on us over the years since AoS and the addition of more and more features an item can have on it to the point it's past ridiculous.

 

[Felonious Monk]

IBTL

^Heee!^

 

[cazador]

Considering many left over the creation of Trammel, creating a Tram-free shard could bring back many who left for free-shards to get the game they loved, and perhaps draw in PvP fans from other games because of the large variety of skills you can mix, match, & change as desired. UO has a 15 year buildup of content.

Considering many left over the shift to an item-based game from a skill-based game caused by AoS, creating a UO:Ren shard could bring back many who left for free-shards to get the skill-based game they loved. Not to mention get rid of the conglomeration of items that have been piled on us over the years since AoS and the addition of more and more features an item can have on it to the point it's past ridiculous.

quick question...why leave a free shard that already has those rules implemented with a nice player base an a helpful staff and weekly to monthly events for a corporate version where u have to pay..start from zero again..and deal with stricter rules???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tanivar]

Another thought. Eve Online, or whatever it's called. A UO-like sandbox game with full PvP.

How about setting up a Shard with the moongate access to Trammel removed and the Fel ruleset on all facets and see how many of the players from Eve might stop by and check out the 15 years of content & items UO has? Apparently Eve's graphics are far newer but those who like much of UO's content may stay and add to EA's bottom line.

Unlike Siege, this would be a fresh shard.

 

[Tanivar]

quick question...why leave a free shard that already has those rules implemented with a nice player base an a helpful staff and weekly to monthly events for a corporate version where u have to pay..start from zero again..and deal with stricter rules???

Do all free shards have these benefits you've mentioned? I've heard tale that some have problems come along as the creators of the shard get bored running it or allow friends to get away with things others can't. UO's stricter rules could sound very good to some free-shard players, even at $13 a month.

 

[Viper09]

On a side note, an anniversary shard would be a neat idea. Maybe not with the ideas presented by the OP but something fun and unique. Although we should know by now that special shards are done on the teams own time. With that being said I would say let them combine this with a halloween/15th anniversary shard.

 

[Viquire]

We seem to be lacking a facepalm emoticon. I just don't understand what part of extremely limited resources people don't get.

 

[cazador]

Do all free shards have these benefits you've mentioned? I've heard tale that some have problems come along as the creators of the shard get bored running it or allow friends to get away with things others can't. UO's stricter rules could sound very good to some free-shard players, even at $13 a month.

no not all do but if your looking for a real classic shard there is one that stands out above others..that does not have to issue you state it's very professional tbh..i admit to playing it when on my hiatus from EA..but it's not the classic UO that brought me back it's high seas...things like that peak other players not reverting to get te same thing they already have


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Tanivar]

We seem to be lacking a facepalm emoticon. I just don't understand what part of extremely limited resources people don't get.

The resources are apparently sorely limited, no doubt, which is why they should be put towards changes to draw in new & former players. Every additional account is another $155.88 added each year to UO's value to EA. Add just a thousand new players, former players, and refugees from Eve and other games, and thats $155,880 UO will have to make the beancounters happier with UO. The happier they are, the better UO's chances of seeing it's 20th Anniversary are.

 

[Dol'Gorath]

Do all free shards have these benefits you've mentioned? I've heard tale that some have problems come along as the creators of the shard get bored running it or allow friends to get away with things others can't. UO's stricter rules could sound very good to some free-shard players, even at $13 a month.

Two of the biggest UO free shards have been running over 5 years and are very professional. They are very professional and full staffed with GM/Counselor support and events and some also have an e-ehop for donations to help support the shard. So longevity has been proven.

 

[Woodsman]

Does anyone really believe UO will have another shard? -- Report: BioWare Mythic To Announce New Free-To-Play Title | Stratics Forums

When "Daddy" gets a new baby, it seldom bodes well for the older stepchild.

Much different games. I think it will be much farther away from UO than Warhammer Wrath of Heroes from Age of Reckoning.

I'm not saying Lords of Ultima different, but a lot more different.

 

[Woodsman]

quick question...why leave a free shard that already has those rules implemented with a nice player base an a helpful staff and weekly to monthly events for a corporate version where u have to pay..start from zero again..and deal with stricter rules???

This is something I try to bring up in the classic shard threads. People who want classic shards have already went out and found them with free shards, and they find them with any kind of ruleset they want.

The idea that they would give up their existing communities/guilds to start over and start pay $13 a month is almost ludicrous.

If EA thought they could get make more money with classic shards, they would have done them years ago.

 

[Warpig Inc]

I'll cover it again. Every shard gets a new land mass. Can only get there with empty backpack, bankbox, stables and naked. There is no to very very very little gold to be earned. There are other names and colors they can stick on gold for new land money. No to very very very rare chance to earn runic tools. Those items used in imbuing very very very hard to earn. Use the RNG from the moonstone jewelry drops for any kind of artifacts and specials. Fel ruleset. Leaving the new lands the Inn has safeboxes and new hitching post that only applies to the new land. Leave the way you came.

 

[MalagAste]

This is something I try to bring up in the classic shard threads. People who want classic shards have already went out and found them with free shards, and they find them with any kind of ruleset they want.

The idea that they would give up their existing communities/guilds to start over and start pay $13 a month is almost ludicrous.

If EA thought they could get make more money with classic shards, they would have done them years ago.

^^^ This ^^^ X10

Silly to think that anyone playing a Free Shard would EVER come back to paying for UO.

And Secondly .... for the 100BILLIONTH time..... The server number ROSE drastically AFTER UO:R.... So if we want to think Logically then we MUST think that Fel was NOT what everyone wanted.... and YES they did drop off quite a bit awhile AFTER AoS.... But some of this could be due to new games out there... And the poor decision to make FEL the original shard and force communities to move.... Slowly killing them.

And Finally once again I must point out that a new "Fel" only shard would NEVER work because only PvPers would go there.... the "lambs" would NOT.... therefore it would NEVER be like the old days of UO because there wouldn't be any Lambs for the Slaughter.. and therefore the "fun" aspect would NOT exist. There would be no "suckers" to steal from, just a bunch of hardened fellies looking to steal and kill everyone else.... and Very soon there would be one MASSIVE Zerg guild and then NO ONE else would have fun.... the ZERG guild would quickly get BORED with no one to fight and the shard would become much like all Fel Facets on all the other shards and be EMPTY.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

add items to the UOstore.
A dupe free economy

is that the same store where on a weekly basis we hear reports of epic failure, and have since High Seas?
dupe free? don't we get the publish for that soon?

 

[DJAd]

How about a new area for the 15th anniversary. A new area that can be entered by ANYONE on ANY shard. More like a meeting place to people from different shards to "hangout". You just pop through a moongate and appear in this new land. I don't think it could be a PvP area due to lag issues with all the different people from various parts of the world.

 

[Stussywear]

I would love to see something like this brought to UO. Something like this would probably be about the only thing that would make me reconsider coming back to a game that I once loved for over a decade.

I think that they could easily bring back a solid playerbase with something like this, then build on it. Hope to see more on this.

 

[Penana Car]

I don't agree with this thread. I think it is rather obvious we need better graphics, and maybe another empty land expansion before an idea as genius as this comes to fruition. If you don't like Ultima Online the way it is - quite simply that is your own problem. There are at least a dozen regulars here on Stratics that love UO and want you to leave "their" UO alone. I vote nay for a classic shard. Thanks

 

[Tanivar]

I don't agree with this thread. I think it is rather obvious we need better graphics, and maybe another empty land expansion before an idea as genius as this comes to fruition. If you don't like Ultima Online the way it is - quite simply that is your own problem. There are at least a dozen regulars here on Stratics that love UO and want you to leave "their" UO alone. I vote nay for a classic shard. Thanks

Look at the bright side, if they try adding some of the popular alternatives to the current UO they will draw in more players. More players mean happier beancounters, happier beancounters means UO will continue to be here to play. The "their" UO included.

 

[Ludes]

MalagAste has a good point.. you could never get a real pre-Tram experience again because many people do not choose to put themselves in danger of being killed and looted.
Without P's, PK's get bored.
Pre-Tram in UO was different because there was no other game to go to.

That's why we started grouping up in the first place, to protect ourselves from the PK's..
Of course some of us found this exciting and challenging.

But noone can dispute the numbers that migrated to Trammel after Ren.. obviously people were sick of lawlessness.
And if you get nostalgic there are some pretty nice alternatives out there. Maybe not "pure" classic but pretty close.

 

[Selurnoraa]

This is something I try to bring up in the classic shard threads. People who want classic shards have already went out and found them with free shards, and they find them with any kind of ruleset they want.

The idea that they would give up their existing communities/guilds to start over and start pay $13 a month is almost ludicrous.

Getting back the players from freeshards is an added bonus, and I do believe that many of them would come. Not sure if this really applies here but if you look at WoW players are constantly forming groups to re-roll on random servers from scratch just for the simply fact they want to change things up and meet new people. If I recall correctly I even remember Petra Fyde herself say that she like to start new characters on a random shard with nothing and train them up. There is interest in this kind of stuff.

MalagAste has a good point.. you could never get a real pre-Tram experience again because many people do not choose to put themselves in danger of being killed and looted.
Without P's, PK's get bored.
Pre-Tram in UO was different because there was no other game to go to.

I never once stated a Felucca only shard. I am also not opposed to it but like orginally stated that's a debate for another time.
However Pre-Tram the 'zerg' guilds didn't really exist, these emerged with the addition of powerscrolls to Felucca for simple fact that they wanted to having controlling interest on the powerscroll market for financial benefits.

is that the same store where on a weekly basis we hear reports of epic failure, and have since High Seas?
dupe free? don't we get the publish for that soon?

I haven't had a problem with the UOstore myself however if you want to see Ultima keep going then a variety of items need to be added to the store to boost the game's income, if only marginally it all helps.
What publish is going to undo all the duping that has happened in this game? I just don't see how it's possible to fix an economy that has been plagued by duping for years.

 

[Uriah Heep]

But noone can dispute the numbers that migrated to Trammel after Ren.. obviously people were sick of lawlessness.

If you remember the number of people around back then, you will know that isn't the only reason.

A lot of us went, just to have a decent house...

 

[Tanivar]

The Shard I'd love to see is a UO:Ren shard. A shard with Tram but pre-AoS which I think of as Act of Stupidity. Where the game is skill-based again, not this 240,000 different items with 47,000 different features each can have bull we have now. The Devs seem to be taking every opportunity they can come up with to add more items and item features. It's certainly what they have done with the dungeon remodeling they've been doing.

If anything drives me to a free-shard, it will be the pile of items that crowd me out of offical UO.

Fel is a place I rarely go because of the PK experience there my first fcouple of years playing. How many times can you handle having some clown in armor dance around your ordinary clothed miner's body waving his weapon while ranting what a macho stud he is and how he's pwned you?

The only reason I back the idea of a pre-tram classic shard is because getting it would improve the chances of getting a UO:Ren flavor shard. My first post in this thread mentions that at the end. If my old posts, particularly from those two humongous classic shard threads we had a while back, can be called up in a search, read my opinions of Fel, PKers, non-consensual PvP, and how not-fun it is for the ones having thier fun ruined by the clowns who love slaughtering anyone they can find who is not a PvPer who would likely do unto them and ruin the Pkers fun. (Poor babies)

-----------------------------

Back on topic.

Adding shards which would attract niche groups of paying customers to UO would be a good idea. The more money EA makes from UO, the more secure UO's future is. They can do several UO variations doing fairly simple things, like taking the Tram choices off the moongate window & putting the Fel ruleset on all the remaining facets and seeing how many hardcore PvPers from games like Eve might wander in to try it out along with the 15 years of content UO has built up. UO has older graphics but that 15 years of content is there as a counterbalance to that.

I imagine changing the moongate list, changing the combat formulas, taking the resist info off the lists of what item windows show us, and changing the rulesets on the facets would take a lot less man-hours than the dungeon revamping has been taking.

Remember, more paying customers mean happier beancounters, which means we can all grow old & gray playing UO.

Well in my case, older & grayer. <g>

 

[Ludes]

If you remember the number of people around back then, you will know that isn't the only reason.

A lot of us went, just to have a decent house...

This is true as well...

 

[Felonious Monk]

Does anyone remember how badly house placement went on the night the lands were released for all to place?
The servers were over whelmed.

 

[Ludes]

I remember not getting one placed.. it was several days later I finally placed a small marble workshop.

In almost the exact same spot I still live.

 

[Stussywear]

I don't agree with this thread. I think it is rather obvious we need better graphics, and maybe another empty land expansion before an idea as genius as this comes to fruition. If you don't like Ultima Online the way it is - quite simply that is your own problem. There are at least a dozen regulars here on Stratics that love UO and want you to leave "their" UO alone. I vote nay for a classic shard. Thanks

How does a dozen stratics' posters represent the entire population of people interested in something like this. If you're not interested, then move on. This wont affect anyone who is happy with the servers they are on. I know personally a lot of players who would enjoy coming back to something they loved, if there was any support for it. Some who, not that it matters, were very active stratics posters too.

 

[Penana Car]

How does a dozen stratics' posters represent the entire population of people interested in something like this. If you're not interested, then move on. This wont affect anyone who is happy with the servers they are on. I know personally a lot of players who would enjoy coming back to something they loved, if there was any support for it. Some who, not that it matters, were very active stratics posters too.

Well sir, if EA/Mythic cannot finance their own forums on their own website to start out with, they are not going to finance an entire shard when they have 30 dead ones. You need to adapt to change - don't be stuck in 2007 or when ever Age of Shadows was released. Have you beat Shame? Have you beat the Stygian lock quests? 2012 has brought such a great present to Ultima Online. Best game on the market. Way better than those easy games like WoW. Who plays that anyway? They make their name off of WarCraft 1 and 2. They have no idea how to make an MMO like Electronic Arts. All Electronic Arts did was take what Origin Systems did and make it the best game on the market. Like I say, way way harder than WoW. You can get to level 100 in no time at all on WoW I have had an umbuer for 13 months and at 111.6 skill I still don't see the end of the tunnel.

 

[Tanivar]

Well sir, if EA/Mythic cannot finance their own forums on their own website to start out with, they are not going to finance an entire shard when they have 30 dead ones. You need to adapt to change - don't be stuck in 2007 or when ever Age of Shadows was released.

30 dead shards make clear what they are doing is not what their paying customers want in a game. They need to adapt and change things so that their paying customers want to stay, and don't leave to go to a free-shard to get the fun they want.

30 dead shards make clear what they are doing is not what potential new players who want a different game to play are looking for. They need to adapt and change what they are doing to attract these potential customers who are looking for another game to play.

Apparently they need to change and place more focus on PvP. (try and lessen the harm done by adding Tram)

Apparently they need to change and place less focus on adding more items. (try and lessen the harm done by the release of AoS)

Apparently they need to change and stop giving new monsters 10's of thousands of hp and making them take so long to kill, most players find them boring and ignore those parts of the game.

Apparently they need to adapt to change, and just have no clue what will keep old players and draw new ones in. Sadly the inability to adapt and change to fit into the current gaming environment carries a darwinian penalty. If they don't get their act together, we could all wind up on free-shards because EA's UO becomes extinct.

 

[Selurnoraa]

Not counting Test, there's the Siege rules shards of which there are 2 and they appear to have slight rules variants between them, and the "Production Shards." The two Siege rules shards, according to a long-ago-and conveniently-deleted post by Draconi, are by far the two lowest populated shards.

Two is that, as is typical, to some this becomes an excuse to bash Trammel, assert (without any evidence whatsoever, and in fact evidence to the contrary) that Trammel is the problem, Trammel ruined UO, etc.

It's been a dozen years since Trammel was introduced. During that time, nothing has been taken away from Felucca, things have been added to it, and none of the additions have caused anything more than a brief spike of folks interested in that particular lifestyle. UO's numeric peak, according to every source we have access to (the semi-reliable and the questionable alike), was long after Trammel. To focus on Felucca, by definition, would lead to the entirety of the game being as empty as Fel typically is or as Siege and Mugen typically are.

The original idea proposed in this thread was a bad one, and from the sample of posts I took little in the thread has improved upon it.

-Galen's player

None of your points have anything to do with what I posted.

Siege before AoS was one of the most popular shards out there, you can't blame the playerbase for not wanting to play a fundamentally flawed server.

Bringing the trammel versus felucca debate into this thread serves no purpose. However I will would just like to add that Stratics itself has some very active posters that would be considered 'trammies' that play Siege. However like I stated I had no intention of trammel being removed, so thats why I would appreciate it if you stopped trying to cause a debate on that and open it up in a new thread.

 

[Woodsman]

Does anyone remember how badly house placement went on the night the lands were released for all to place?
The servers were over whelmed.

I know a lot of people who took off from work on certain days so they could place houses. One of my top 5 memorable events.

 

[Woodsman]

Well sir, if EA/Mythic cannot finance their own forums on their own website to start out with,

EA can.

Choose Language | BioWare Social Network

BioWare has forums for DOS games that came out 15 years ago. BioWare has official forums for Warhammer Online, complete with volunteer moderators. Given how huge BioWare's forum setup is, with Mass Effect and Dragon Age on there, UO would probably be less than 5% of the forum traffic, if that.

Warhammer's mods are volunteers by the way, so the idea that they can't use volunteer mods is ridiculous.

And EA proper has forums for all of their games. Again, UO would probably be less than 5% of the forum traffic, if that.

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/categories/list.page

EA has multiple means to introduce UO forums, they choose not to.

 

[Tanivar]

Given the problems and conflicts caused by having as many rules sets as we do, there's really no good reason to think that any new shards, regardless of rules set used, is a good idea. Indeed there's rather specific reasons to think such is not a good idea, given that there's people running around out there that think that even Atlantic is somehow not populated enough.

Which shows that paying customers are leaving UO and there are not enough new ones coming in to replace them. A downhill trend in paying customers is a Bad Thing for any game. Apparently there is something about the current UO that is not holding old paying customers and not attracting new ones. They need to change that. UO, as it is now, has a shrinking bottom line, and we need the beancounters kept happy, or they will pull the plug and leave us trying out free-shards.

It's bad enough that we players have to deal with our peers spouting Shard Consolidation proposals, let alone also having to deal with "more shards" proposals at the same time.

Shard mergers would likely have paying customers decide to leave rather than move. Each Shard has established histories and Player Towns.

If they start a few new shards with variations in rules and features, they may find something that starts an inflow of new or returning Paying Customers that will bring in more money than it costs to run. EA's deciding to look back in UO's history and see what expansions & publishes preceded an increase in Paying Customers and preceded a decline in Paying Customers would be a good start. They have the dtailed records on file.

Not counting Test, there's the Siege rules shards of which there are 2 and they appear to have slight rules variants between them, and the "Production Shards." The two Siege rules shards, according to a long-ago-and conveniently-deleted post by Draconi, are by far the two lowest populated shards.

I tried Siege intending to set up Crafters there, even though I don't care for PvP and hate Pkers. The two main points that discouraged me from playing Siege was the inability to sell anything to NPCs which made building up funds to get established with way to slow and difficult, and the Dark Whisps or whatever they're called that would kill my Mages from behind as I would move to stay out of melee range of the monster I was fighting. A few months of that sent me back to Chessie full time.

A full pvp shard without those main points might draw a lot more players than Siege has.

It's been a dozen years since Trammel was introduced. During that time, nothing has been taken away from Felucca, things have been added to it, and none of the additions have caused anything more than a brief spike of folks interested in that particular lifestyle. UO's numeric peak, according to every source we have access to (the semi-reliable and the questionable alike), was long after Trammel. To focus on Felucca, by definition, would lead to the entirety of the game being as empty as Fel typically is or as Siege and Mugen typically are.

I don't see the draw myself. I am very rarely in Fel. Probably less than once every year or so.

The question of what is UO doing that is sending current customers elsewhere and not drawing in new ones is relevant here. Eve Online is a sandbox like UO, doesn't have 15 years of content built up, is full PvP, and doing well. Free-shards that are PvP are said to be doing well. What are they doing differently than EA's UO? Ea's UO needs to figure this out and make appropiate changes.

 

[MalagAste]

Paying customers have been leaving at an alarming rate.... partially due to the lack of being able to get any decent PvP and by that I mean not having to cheat to play... or not having to deal with folk who are using cheats and hacks...

Partially due to other games giving FAR better customer service and eye candy... ie graphics that are better than you get on your super nintendo. Lets face it folk want XBox, PS2 and better graphics that their rigs can handle... Not graphics that are soooo 15 years go.

Partially due to the economy going to pot... Lets face it when gas and bread cost more and more and more what used to be cheap the 12.99+ we all spend gets well.... axed. I'm sorry but Food, Gas, Electricity and a Roof over my head come before gameplay.

Partially due to the vast numbers of folk who've been hacked and lost everything... I personally would be done with UO if someone hacked my account and deleted my characters... Now I might stay if EA at the VERY least gave my stinking characters back.... but to start over from no where No.... I'd be done.

But of late I think the highest number of folk are leaving because they can't navigate the Frelling website to get or keep their accounts active. And several who've just been paying but not playing have decided that given the difficulties with keeping the account active have just shut them down... I know countless folk who can't get their accounts reactivated at all... or they are doing just fine then for some unknown reason EA decides suddenly that they can't use the CC they have always used... and being unable to contact customer support they say fhooey and quit.

Can't say as I blame anyone. But when you add up all that it adds up to a heck of a lot of lost players. I can honestly say that having a Pre:Ren or Pre:AoS shard would do much at all... infact I'm going to say it would be a MASSIVE waste of DEV time...

I'd rather see them focus on updating the outdated graphics... fixing up the EC client to such an extent that it brings in folk and allows them to have ONE client... I'd also like to seem the give some sort of official status to MODDERS willing to upkeep a good UI like Pinco and ect... allowing folk to get that right from EA/UO and not from a private server... making folk more comfortable.... or at least giving folk like Pinco the 3rd party program OK status. Which UOMapper has gotten so folk are more likely to want to use it... and more comfortable using it. They need to do some of their own UI packages so that folk have more choices as well. Take some of the ideas from other UI's that are popular whatever...

But all this hype about going BACK No we don't need to go back we need to move forward..... in a BIG way.

 

[Tanivar]

But all this hype about going BACK No we don't need to go back we need to move forward..... in a BIG way.

Moving forward is a Good Thing, but EA needs to consider they've made a wrong turn somewhere and are not going the right way. The route they are taking is shedding Customers and not picking up many new ones.

What that one or more wrong turns were is something they have to dig into their records, look at the competition, and figure out to get back to moving forward on the path to more Customers coming in than are leaving..

 

[Uriah Heep]

To be honest, If I were a new customer, one of my friends had talked me into playing UO, I would be interested in giving it a try up to the point of hitting that unintuitive fiasco of an account management page. I'm old, and slower to learn I guess, than most are. That would be the end of it for me...I wouldnt mind setting up a game account, butI wouldn't want to set up and account to set up an account.

And then they have to figure out linking...

Ea shoots themselves in the foot so much it isnt even funny. In the end it won't be a new game that kills us, it will be our owners.

 

[Tanivar]

To be honest, If I were a new customer, one of my friends had talked me into playing UO, I would be interested in giving it a try up to the point of hitting that unintuitive fiasco of an account management page. I'm old, and slower to learn I guess, than most are. That would be the end of it for me...I wouldnt mind setting up a game account, butI wouldn't want to set up and account to set up an account.

And then they have to figure out linking...

Ea shoots themselves in the foot so much it isnt even funny. In the end it won't be a new game that kills us, it will be our owners.

Sadly true.

I doubt very much I'd make much, if any effort to phone EA if my last open account suddenly had problems. The fiasco of getting things set up in the, definitely unituitive, new billing system and how little help EA CS was last fall took care of that.

That new billing system is definitely one of the wrong turns EA has taken.

 

[Multani]

Paying customers have been leaving at an alarming rate.... partially due to the lack of being able to get any decent PvP and by that I mean not having to cheat to play... or not having to deal with folk who are using cheats and hacks...

Partially due to other games giving FAR better customer service and eye candy... ie graphics that are better than you get on your super nintendo. Lets face it folk want XBox, PS2 and better graphics that their rigs can handle... Not graphics that are soooo 15 years go.

Partially due to the economy going to pot... Lets face it when gas and bread cost more and more and more what used to be cheap the 12.99+ we all spend gets well.... axed. I'm sorry but Food, Gas, Electricity and a Roof over my head come before gameplay.

Partially due to the vast numbers of folk who've been hacked and lost everything... I personally would be done with UO if someone hacked my account and deleted my characters... Now I might stay if EA at the VERY least gave my stinking characters back.... but to start over from no where No.... I'd be done.

But of late I think the highest number of folk are leaving because they can't navigate the Frelling website to get or keep their accounts active. And several who've just been paying but not playing have decided that given the difficulties with keeping the account active have just shut them down... I know countless folk who can't get their accounts reactivated at all... or they are doing just fine then for some unknown reason EA decides suddenly that they can't use the CC they have always used... and being unable to contact customer support they say fhooey and quit.

Can't say as I blame anyone. But when you add up all that it adds up to a heck of a lot of lost players. I can honestly say that having a Pre:Ren or Pre:AoS shard would do much at all... infact I'm going to say it would be a MASSIVE waste of DEV time...

I'd rather see them focus on updating the outdated graphics... fixing up the EC client to such an extent that it brings in folk and allows them to have ONE client... I'd also like to seem the give some sort of official status to MODDERS willing to upkeep a good UI like Pinco and ect... allowing folk to get that right from EA/UO and not from a private server... making folk more comfortable.... or at least giving folk like Pinco the 3rd party program OK status. Which UOMapper has gotten so folk are more likely to want to use it... and more comfortable using it. They need to do some of their own UI packages so that folk have more choices as well. Take some of the ideas from other UI's that are popular whatever...

But all this hype about going BACK No we don't need to go back we need to move forward..... in a BIG way.