NEWS [UO.Com] Ask & Answer No. 13

[Hannes Erich]

Merge some shards PLEASE.

Are you going to give up your housing if the merged shard has player housing in the exact coordinates as yours?

Okay, okay, fine; that was an unfair opening. I apologize.

But the technical requirements for a shard merger may not even exist, and certain obstacles may be logistically insurmountable, and the above is only one example of some logistics involved. A shard merger may not be a merger at all, but may instead require two or more shard populations to pick up and move to an entirely new shard, preceding mass shutdowns of original shards. This would be the fairest way to do it, and there are two ways to get customers do to this. Ask and incentivize them, or force them upon deadlines. Either way, you will have more dissatisfied customers than satisfied ones.

Now, I'm not one of those "UO is dead" types (I've seen games on maintenance mode, and some UO players wouldn't know "maintenance mode" if it bit them on their leather shorts). But I do suspect that a shard merger, along with the expense of resources that it would require, is out of the cards. Not to say that I think a large-ish expenditure of resources is out of the cards (remember, resources aren't just money, but also dev/GM/CS/PR time/manpower...), unlikely or improbable, sure, but not impossible. EA could very well surprise Mythic by pulling up with a dumptruck full of money and PR, and it wouldn't be the first time I've seen a big publisher do this for a "good old game" that still had some kind of a pulse and potential. But meanwhile, this isn't 2003, and return on investment is an even trickier thing when they're "working with what they've got."

TL;DR: This is why I doubt they're going to spend time and money and manpower on a shard merger: because it would likely expend more money and other resources than they spend on keeping things as they are; and because it would cut into things that they want to do more (and that more of us want them to do); and because I doubt they're going to find ways to make the world look more "full" again, when for well over a decade, the majority of players complained about how full it looked.

Just learn to relax and enjoy a little more New Zealand, and a little less New York City in your Britannia.

It's a new era.

Get used to it!

 

[cdavbar]

UO Japan

I love new art items such as soulforges, Nexus, Harpsichords and Davies’ Lockers. They look very cool! Unfortunately, they are so large, that I can't place all of them in my house. Is there any chances to add options which allow me to select smaller version of them? (Nickname: MESORIN)

Mesanna: Maybe in the future but not at this time

Leave the soulforges alone. There is already a smaller soulforge available in game. Grab some white nets, fish up Scalis, and get one. My only suggestion would be to make the one tile soulforge from the primevil champ usable as a soulforge.

 

[FrejaSP]

Could we please get a token/code to buy from the origin store, that would allow a player on a younger account to get the 720 skill cap? (mikni)

Mesanna: How about we just raise everyone to 720 ?

I really would love a way to allow a crafter to have combat skills and a caster/tamer/bard/warrior to have crafing skills.

Let say we increased the cap to 1100, but keeped the limit at 720 for crafting skills and the limit for combat skills at 720 too, then a crafter would have 380 skill points he could use for surviving in the wildernes. It would not make him a great fighter buy much better than now.

A caster/tamer/bard/warrior would have 380 points for crafting or they could split it 550 point for crafting and 550 for fighting but never more than 720 for fighting or crafting.

I know it's not easy as some skills could count on both sides, like Inscribing and Imbuing, that both are crafting skills, that gives bonus fighting skills.

I really want to see more combat players who also have a few crafting skills and crafters, who can defend them self, at least vs monsters. Just take a lumberjack/carpentry/fletcher, he should be able to PvM and even PvP too, same with a miner/tinker/smith.

I believe it would improve the game, special on Siege.

 

[RaDian FlGith]

80% of the reason people defend the smaller shards is bc thats where they can farm scrolls/resrouces in peace. Merge some shards PLEASE. Over 5,000 houses have fell in the last 3 weeks.............

Who cares why someone plays on a small shard? The PvPers have as much opportunity to go to Sonoma or Legends or wherever as those trying to "farm" in "peace." There is still absolutely no need to merge shards. People have ways off of shards they don't want to be on. The logistics of a forced merger would be a nightmare. How do you guarantee housing space of equivalent size or placement? How do you get the "small shard" play experience on say Atlantic?

If you don't want to play a small shard, don't. If you want to play a high pop shard... do so.

Why's there an issue?

 

[cdavbar]

I really would love a way to allow a crafter to have combat skills and a caster/tamer/bard/warrior to have crafing skills.

Let say we increased the cap to 1100, but keeped the limit at 720 for crafting skills and the limit for combat skills at 720 too, then a crafter would have 380 skill points he could use for surviving in the wildernes. It would not make him a great fighter buy much better than now.

A caster/tamer/bard/warrior would have 380 points for crafting or they could split it 550 point for crafting and 550 for fighting but never more than 720 for fighting or crafting.

I know it's not easy as some skills could count on both sides, like Inscribing and Imbuing, that both are crafting skills, that gives bonus fighting skills.

I really want to see more combat players who also have a few crafting skills and crafters, who can defend them self, at least vs monsters. Just take a lumberjack/carpentry/fletcher, he should be able to PvM and even PvP too, same with a miner/tinker/smith.

I believe it would improve the game, special on Siege.

This is more absurd than the suggestion someone had on raising the skill cap to 800 points. All this is is a way to get around having 2 char slots dedicated to crafters. You could in essence have 7 PvP or PvM or a mix thereof char with no crafter since they all would have some sort of skill(s) for crafting. As for seige, that is why there is soulstones.

 

[FrejaSP]

This is more absurd than the suggestion someone had on raising the skill cap to 800 points. All this is is a way to get around having 2 char slots dedicated to crafters. You could in essence have 7 PvP or PvM or a mix thereof char with no crafter since they all would have some sort of skill(s) for crafting. As for seige, that is why there is soulstones.

Not absurd at all, and not a way to have 2 char slot in one but a way to have chars who survive better in Fel zone. How fun do you think it is to get your crafter killed without being able to defense yourself. They have removed most spawn on overland, as the crafters was crying, they got ganked of orc mages and brigand archers.
Also in old days, you would see reds, who hade skills to craft their own armor and weapon, maybe they was tailor/fletcher or miner/smith. Now we got so many new skills and support skills, so thet is no room for 1-2 crafting skills if you also want to be able to PvP.

Just increasing it to 800 would not help, the crafters would use all 800 point for crafting and still not be able to fight and the fighters would be super killers, who could not affort skills for crafting. You have to have some caps for crafting points and for fighting points to make it work.

 

[Vor]

The only shard that would be of any use on really would be Siege I guess.

 

[Lord Frodo]

80% of the reason people defend the smaller shards is bc thats where they can farm scrolls/resrouces in peace. Merge some shards PLEASE.

I am sorry you have no pride for your home shard no matter what the population is.

Over 5,000 houses have fell in the last 3 weeks.............

Did you get this number from UO and if so please tell us who you know.

 

[cdavbar]

Not absurd at all, and not a way to have 2 char slot in one but a way to have chars who survive better in Fel zone. How fun do you think it is to get your crafter killed without being able to defense yourself. They have removed most spawn on overland, as the crafters was crying, they got ganked of orc mages and brigand archers.
Also in old days, you would see reds, who hade skills to craft their own armor and weapon, maybe they was tailor/fletcher or miner/smith. Now we got so many new skills and support skills, so thet is no room for 1-2 crafting skills if you also want to be able to PvP.

Just increasing it to 800 would not help, the crafters would use all 800 point for crafting and still not be able to fight and the fighters would be super killers, who could not affort skills for crafting. You have to have some caps for crafting points and for fighting points to make it work.

My crafter survives in Fel just fine.

 

[Petra Fyde]

Some things to bear in mind.
The number of active accounts now is exactly the same as the number of active accounts before all the houses started falling. Those houses are on inactive accounts. The RTB houses were on accounts that hadn't been active for years and years. We may not have known those figures - but the Devs did.
They're not running around like headless chickens predicting the sky is falling. They're working on this lot: http://uo2.stratics.com/posts/37278
Weapons revamp, armor revamp and a new theme pack.

Whether you believe it or not, there ARE new players in game. Some are brand new, some are returning and some have come from freeshards. How do I know this? Because I've seen them say so in Help chat. They want/need houses. Find them, join help chat, visit Haven, show them where to build. Dry the crocodile tears and do something positive about it.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Because they need to repeat, "No, we're not merging the shards," and "We take scripting and hacking very seriously," every single time they post an Ask & Answer series, right?

As for Felucca, it gets mentioned from time to time, but since the vast majority of the playerbase doesn't play in Felucca, it's unlikely to get regular billing.

Yeah, the shard merger thing they should totally ignore. It's been answered to death and is getting to be a bit ridiculous...Kinda like when EVERY FoF wasted one slot going "gargoyles can fly". sheeeeesh

 

[Warpig Inc]

Being able to imbue crafting skills on jewels would help greatly.