[The Sparrow's Nest] January 28, 2012

[Lady Laurel]

WOW! I am still hearing about this awaited letter. So many people are awaiting it's arrival, it must contain some matter of importance.

Just yesterday I overheard two people talking about it again, and one of them seemed to know the new arrival date . . . .

@Jeff_Skalski anymore word from the community team also where is that letter I am excited!! #UO

— @name RFP January 27, 2012

@Name Its done and approved. Looks like they want to post it next week.

— Jeff Skalski (@Jeff_Skalski) January 27, 2012

On that note, I am going exploring and see if I can find out anything new.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

Further looking on Twitter appears to suggest that the Publish and the letter will come out at the same time.

This has the great disadvantage that one can never underestimate EA's capacity for delays for the sake of delays, even after all the ducks are seemingly lined up properly.

I suppose it has the advantage of that new crafting thing (Re-forging?) being more likely to go in with the rest of the Publish as they have had more time to work on it, but....Worse things than that going in in a separate Publish, no?

At any rate, one of the biggest threats to UO has always been EA's irrationality as an entity. The needless delays in Producer's letters or state of the game videos and the like are evidence of that basic irrationality. UO's not important enough to them to invest in but is important enough to mess with.

-Galen's player

 

[Rupert Avery]

WOW! I am still hearing about this awaited letter. So many people are awaiting it's arrival, it must contain some matter of importance.

Apparently it should contain some teasers as to what their plans are for the 15th Birthday of UO and their plans for the rest of the year!

 

[MalagAste]

Not holding my breath. Hoping though for a well written piece of something other than propaganda.

Again not holding my breath.

I've already kinda seen some of what I expect is coming for Easter and Valentines...

(I cheated and looked in Inside UO)...

Not sure how I feel about them.

Guess I'm feeling sort of sad after all the IDOC's fell seeing just how many are gone and not returning... and almost sadder yet knowing that there are probably at least that many RTB homes sitting there waiting to fall that will never go IDOC because EA can't figure out how to find them.


Makes me almost wish I'd placed 2 or 3 of my own... think of all the free storage I'd have right now.

 

[Woodsman]

This has the great disadvantage that one can never underestimate EA's capacity for delays for the sake of delays, even after all the ducks are seemingly lined up properly.

At any rate, one of the biggest threats to UO has always been EA's irrationality as an entity. The needless delays in Producer's letters or state of the game videos and the like are evidence of that basic irrationality. UO's not important enough to them to invest in but is important enough to mess with.

Given that BioWare executives publicly stated that they, and not EA proper, control UO, it really makes you wonder why UO is still treated like this. BioWare was always good about supporting their games and talking about them - Mass Effect 3 won't be out for another 6 weeks or so, and we've heard more specifics about it in the past few months than UO.

 

[Ezekiel Zane]

Guess I'm feeling sort of sad after all the IDOC's fell seeing just how many are gone and not returning... and almost sadder yet knowing that there are probably at least that many RTB homes sitting there waiting to fall that will never go IDOC because EA can't figure out how to find them.

I play on Pac and I was watching and grabbed some loot from about 20 IDOCs. Every one that was a large house, except a couple in wide open spaces in Malas, has been replaced already. I've heard the situation is similar on Atlantic. I can't say for the smaller less populated shards but at least on the medium to high pop shards a lot of the large houses where IDOCs fell the spot has been taken by another player.

 

[Woodsman]

Apparently it should contain some teasers as to what their plans are for the 15th Birthday of UO and their plans for the rest of the year!

"Teasers" don't cut it anymore. Vagueness is a serious problem with UO. I said this in the other thread: I get more specifics about upcoming plans for games that I'm no longer subscribed to than I get from UO, a game that I'm spending over $350 a year on.

In the past two months, I've heard more about plans for Star Wars than I've heard about UO in the past year.

Plus I'm concerned that we are about to hear the same thing we heard in January of 2011: The team has big plans, but they are vague, and big plans from the previous year they were working on have been delayed.

That literally just happened a few days ago - the high resolution graphics upgrade has been delayed in favor of live events. Very reminiscent of last year when things from 2010 were delayed.

Live events help keep current players. The high resolution graphics would help bring in new and returning players. Favoring current players over new players is not a good strategy at this point in UO's life.

Guess I'm feeling sort of sad after all the IDOC's fell seeing just how many are gone and not returning... and almost sadder yet knowing that there are probably at least that many RTB homes sitting there waiting to fall that will never go IDOC because EA can't figure out how to find them.

Even though I'm on a medium population shard, there weren't nearly as many houses falling as I thought there would be.

I would be willing to bet that the IDOCs we saw fall were offset by people coming back or new players. Looking at when I came back last year, and looking at things now, a year later, there are about the same number of 18x18 and tower spots that are empty.

If I started seeing a lot more 18x18/tower spots become available, I'd be worried, but it feels like it's about the same as last year. You can find them if you look, but you aren't necessarily tripping over them.

 

[Woodsman]

I play on Pac and I was watching and grabbed some loot from about 20 IDOCs. Every one that was a large house, except a couple in wide open spaces in Malas, has been replaced already. I've heard the situation is similar on Atlantic. I can't say for the smaller less populated shards but at least on the medium to high pop shards a lot of the large houses where IDOCs fell the spot has been taken by another player.

This is exactly why I'm not worried about the IDOCs.

I swear there were people more concerned with getting the spots than the loot.

 

[claudia-fjp]

I play on Pac and I was watching and grabbed some loot from about 20 IDOCs. Every one that was a large house, except a couple in wide open spaces in Malas, has been replaced already. I've heard the situation is similar on Atlantic. I can't say for the smaller less populated shards but at least on the medium to high pop shards a lot of the large houses where IDOCs fell the spot has been taken by another player.

Overall on Pacific ~220 were decaying. ~20 were refreshed, and ~200 fell. I checked my 12 runebooks and it was mainly the keep and castle spots that were replaced. In the 3 runebooks of malas mostly 18 x 18s and towers I think only 1 was replaced.

Most keeps were replaced with keeps. Most of the castle and potential castle spots were replaced with smaller houses to try and sell or block each other. Overall it just looked like the steady decline of the servers population over 6 months compressed into 1 day.

 

[HD2300]

The high resolution graphics would help bring in new and returning players.

It depends on the quality, quantity and also the speed at which new graphics can be produced. If there isnt a significant quality improvement or if it is going to take 5 years to do, then it wont bring in a significant number of new or returning players.

 

[startle]

"Teasers" don't cut it anymore. Vagueness is a serious problem with UO. I said this in the other thread: I get more specifics about upcoming plans for games that I'm no longer subscribed to than I get from UO, a game that I'm spending over $350 a year on.

I agree completely.... and I'm spending double that.

 

[pgib]

It depends on the quality, quantity and also the speed

For the quality some didn't even notice the last upgrade, for quantity we got floor tiles and maybe not even all of them, as per speed... well, it took like what, four years? I won't start holding my breathe...