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NEWS UO Newsletter #27

skett

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I wonder what the the summer promotional item is.
 

Larisa

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Good stuff, thanks team! :heart:

And an EXTRA special thank you for the Castle Tool..I know that took a lot of work....thank you for taking the time to make sure it's done right...hopefully ;)
 

Uvtha

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Sweet! Siege gets free 75 bankbox on EJ! I honestly would rather have that than a full bank for 3 bucks a month that all disappears if I take a break.
 

Lord Frodo

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From the news letter
One last topic I would like to address is Sovereigns. They are linked to accounts and if for some reason you want to merge or delete an account you will lose the sovereigns attached to that account. We will not move Sovereigns from one account to another.

What do they mean by merge an account?
 

Pawain

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This is so sad but true.

I am happy to announce we have found a EM for Lake Superior, but please note I am keeping all the applications that were filled out correctly for any future openings I may have.

I hire temps once a year and ask for 2 things. It is amazing how many apply and do not send that info. About 5% do not send me any way to contact them to hire them.

:cheerleader: Yay we have an EM!
 

Captn Norrington

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What the heck is a Non-Abyss shard?
All shards that aren't Siege and Mugen. Players call them production and non-production shards, but the real title of Siege is the Abyss shard.
 

Pawain

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Good stuff, thanks team! :heart:

And an EXTRA special thank you for the Castle Tool..I know that took a lot of work....thank you for taking the time to make sure it's done right...hopefully ;)
Thats planned for publish 101. Do you really think it is ready and they would just hold it out until October?
 

Larisa

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Thats planned for publish 101. Do you really think it is ready and they would just hold it out until October?
I never said nor claimed it was ready, I just said thank you for it...I'm sure that it's past it's alpha phase though and is being internally tested since it's slated for the next publish already.
 

Pawain

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Wait. I thought publish 100 was going to have multiple parts. Thats all the bugs they fixed in 6 months!
The bug forum has MANY more bugs with Higher significance than removing Templates from the roof so Sampires do everything solo.

Ill thank them for the extended October event and the next Titan episode. Those bring in players that just do those kind of things.
 

zamot

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So confused on the sovereigns, I have some and can access them from all 4 accounts. So do they know how they work?
 

Pawain

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Sovereigns are shared with all linked accounts. If you unlink you lose them.
 

Great DC

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Ill login back in to OSI when there is new content that is permanent. Seems this year is just gonna be a waste with no new content. So sad since what keeps players interested is adding content without people just get bored and don't play.
 

Slayvite

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Setting the Phoenix aside for a moment (as i'm not a 1 trick pony)...
Nothing about Bod Books and being able to use them like SoT / SoA / Powerscrolls books locked down in a house???.....still....
 

Coco_Zamis_DF

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Is the vault a token item that can be sold between players until used?
Will this vault also be avail for non EJ accounts? What does this mean? Do we have now 175 bank storage plus 125.
I assume this vault is not part of a shard transfer.
Questions,questions und more Fragen....
 

ShriNayne

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Good questions! I would like to know the answers too but more chance of an answer on the other forum I think. Sometimes I think they don't tell us everything on purpose! :p
 

GarthGrey

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Why is it always "Except Siege and Mugen" ? Oh, except Trammel, that one was written..."Except Siege"...why so much hate ?
 

Thrakkar

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Oh, wow, vaults are coming.

So basically we have 4 options now:
  1. Play EJ without spending RL money.
  2. Spend 3€ on a monthly basis for the vault.
  3. Spend 11,50€ for a regular sub.
  4. Never log in ever again.
Option 1 is a no-go for me. 3 out of my 5 main characters are out of the picture, since they're mounted on a full beetle (at least one is sitting on a crammed one, didn't dare to unmount the other two, since they do get the warning popup). Plus even my other chars are over the 25 item limit. So basically I can just play my less interesting chars without any means of storage. :eek:

Option 3 is out of the picture for me. I would like to spend a few hours over a few days in the game, like 2-3 hours on like 1 or 2 days every now and then. Pure nostalgia. But I'm not paying a full month for that.

Option 2, well, I have to spend real money? Again for a full month? And It can get autioned off, if I don't pay regularly? And I don't even have access to my items from my 25+ item bank box? o_O Yeah, right... :coco:

I guess, endless journey is less endless as expected, because it just ended for me before it even started.
 

Lord Frodo

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Ill login back in to OSI when there is new content that is permanent. Seems this year is just gonna be a waste with no new content. So sad since what keeps players interested is adding content without people just get bored and don't play.
You will be waiting a long long time to log into OSI. UO is owned by EA and managed by BS for your information.
 

Cetric

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When is something worth whole going to be released

Wasn't there a vvv update planned for publish 101?
 

railshot

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I would like to spend a few hours over a few days in the game, like 2-3 hours on like 1 or 2 days every now and then. Pure nostalgia. But I'm not paying a full month for that.
BS has a tiny team on a tinier budget. You may appreciate then, that the goal of all the effort they spent to develop EJ was not to provide a perpetual free access for veterans with nostalgia, but more of a free trial to entice people to sub. You do not fit the target audience of EJ, so there is a good reason you are not happy with it.
 

Thrakkar

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BS has a tiny team on a tinier budget. You may appreciate then, that the goal of all the effort they spent to develop EJ was not to provide a perpetual free access for veterans with nostalgia, but more of a free trial to entice people to sub. You do not fit the target audience of EJ, so there is a good reason you are not happy with it.
I disagree.
If the sole purpose of EJ is to attract brand new players, then this is a huge step back in comparison to free trial. With the 14 days trial you had way more freedom than now with EJ. Especially when it comes to bank space & character slots. From the top of my head, the only downside of free trial (compared to EJ) was that you were limited to help chat.

Vets are playing a huge part in this equasion. It's all about vets having a peek now and then and hopefully they decide to resub. Didn't BS say, once we go live with EJ we're sending a mail to every adress we have in our DB? That was a big thing back then. Don't know, if that ever happened though, since I didn't get such a mail (and I still have the same address as 19 years ago, when I created my account).

Besides, that's how F2P works. (Yes, EJ is F2P, regardless if Mesanna reaffirms, that it is not.) Such games are carried by whales, who keep the game alive, be it with subs or in-game shop transactions. And the majority of players just swims along, never spending any or just minimal money. EJ with all it's restrictions, which are IMHO the one of the worst in the whole industry, simply doesn't cater the latter group of people. That's maybe not the smartest move. But I'm not here to trying to change these things. It's their decision. If they really think, that's best for UO, then then have my blessing. Time will tell.
Restrictions or not, I can log in, no matter what, so it's definitely an improvement for me.
 

ShriNayne

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Might have been a good idea to try extending the free trial first, to a month or 6 weeks. A lot less work for the Dev team and there wouldn't be all the storage problems we had since EJ launched either. I wonder how many people were hit by the problem of not being able to re-mount their beetle full of items before there was a warning? On Europa we've had quite a few returners some with their old accounts and some with new accounts and almost as many new players, The new players are better off than the returners are as they at least have some usable storage.
 

Lord Frodo

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I disagree.
If the sole purpose of EJ is to attract brand new players, then this is a huge step back in comparison to free trial. With the 14 days trial you had way more freedom than now with EJ. Especially when it comes to bank space & character slots. From the top of my head, the only downside of free trial (compared to EJ) was that you were limited to help chat.

Vets are playing a huge part in this equasion. It's all about vets having a peek now and then and hopefully they decide to resub. Didn't BS say, once we go live with EJ we're sending a mail to every adress we have in our DB? That was a big thing back then. Don't know, if that ever happened though, since I didn't get such a mail (and I still have the same address as 19 years ago, when I created my account).

Besides, that's how F2P works. (Yes, EJ is F2P, regardless if Mesanna reaffirms, that it is not.) Such games are carried by whales, who keep the game alive, be it with subs or in-game shop transactions. And the majority of players just swims along, never spending any or just minimal money. EJ with all it's restrictions, which are IMHO the one of the worst in the whole industry, simply doesn't cater the latter group of people. That's maybe not the smartest move. But I'm not here to trying to change these things. It's their decision. If they really think, that's best for UO, then then have my blessing. Time will tell.
Restrictions or not, I can log in, no matter what, so it's definitely an improvement for me.
Trial Account - UOGuide, the Ultima Online Encyclopedia
Endless Journey – Ultima Online
You may want to read what an EJ account can do compared to a 14 day free trial account. With the exception of number of chars and bank storage the EJ accounts can go and do way more things that a trial account could never do.
 

Lord Frodo

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Might have been a good idea to try extending the free trial first, to a month or 6 weeks. A lot less work for the Dev team and there wouldn't be all the storage problems we had since EJ launched either. I wonder how many people were hit by the problem of not being able to re-mount their beetle full of items before there was a warning? On Europa we've had quite a few returners some with their old accounts and some with new accounts and almost as many new players, The new players are better off than the returners are as they at least have some usable storage.
All those scrolled out Vet Players would not be able to play their chars at the level they wanted to.
 

Omnicron

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I am a vet. Long time vet. That has returned because of EJ....and have since re subbed. The learning curve is steep but currently I am enjoying the nostalgia that comes along with the old times in UO and relearning the new stuff.

So EJ has worked for me....
 

Thrakkar

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Trial Account - UOGuide, the Ultima Online Encyclopedia
Endless Journey – Ultima Online
You may want to read what an EJ account can do compared to a 14 day free trial account. With the exception of number of chars and bank storage the EJ accounts can go and do way more things that a trial account could never do.
The trial housing restrictions don't say anything about not being able to be a friend, so it seems less restrictive than EJ.
So they can't visit fel. Big deal. They won't neither have the experience nor the char template to survive in PvP. So why would they need fel access?
The resource restrictions are exactly the same.
Then the misc restrictions:
Soulstones, Soulstone Fragments: They won't even scratch the GM level, so why would they need it in those 14 days? Except if you teach them to afk-macro the skills...
Ball of Pet Summoning: Pointless. No skill for a pet worth it. Pet needs 7 days to bond, etc...
Bracelet of Binding: No big deal. Friends can gate them.
Bag of Sending, Commodity Deeds: same as EJ
Scrolls of Alacrity, Power Scrolls, Stat Scrolls and Scrolls of Transcendence: Again, won't scratch GM level. Highly doubt that they would be spoon-fed SoT or poerlevel with SoA. So, pointless.
ML rewards: would that make any differences for a new player, learning the ropes and explore the world? Doubt it...
Champ- & PvP-stuff: Again, no template, no experience. If they wanna try champs, there are enough tram ones, where friends can push the spawn. Will probably only taking dirt naps once they reach level 3 at latest.
Community Collections: Where would they get the items/gold to donate? So, pointless...
Repeatable quests: Don't even know, which ones that would be, so can't say anything about it.
BODs: They would probably survive the 14 days without them. Besides, they woulkd have a hard time filling them, when they also need the resources to train up their skills.

On the other hand we have the bank item limit: Trial 125, EJ 25. That makes a huge difference. When you don't know what to keep and what to dump, you need every space you can get. Even if your friends tell you, that it might not be worth that much. Especially when you're a pack-rat type of player. Or even better, have a vet give him 30 repair deeds, lol.

So yeah, I'm not convinced. New players were better off with trial than EJ.
 

NinjaSampire

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Alot of the old accounts have rares etc. I think the thought is if we allow people to just get all that stuff without paying. The “shelved” storage accounts would get cleaned out then deleted missing out on the fre dollars to sub for a month. I bet if you could see what was in the bank maybe not remove some more people may subscribe to get the good stuff out. IDK i see alot more people around lately and its even during summer months. Hopefully they stay!
 

Lord Frodo

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The trial housing restrictions don't say anything about not being able to be a friend, so it seems less restrictive than EJ.
So they can't visit fel. Big deal. They won't neither have the experience nor the char template to survive in PvP. So why would they need fel access?
The resource restrictions are exactly the same.
Then the misc restrictions:
Soulstones, Soulstone Fragments: They won't even scratch the GM level, so why would they need it in those 14 days? Except if you teach them to afk-macro the skills...
Ball of Pet Summoning: Pointless. No skill for a pet worth it. Pet needs 7 days to bond, etc...
Bracelet of Binding: No big deal. Friends can gate them.
Bag of Sending, Commodity Deeds: same as EJ
Scrolls of Alacrity, Power Scrolls, Stat Scrolls and Scrolls of Transcendence: Again, won't scratch GM level. Highly doubt that they would be spoon-fed SoT or poerlevel with SoA. So, pointless.
ML rewards: would that make any differences for a new player, learning the ropes and explore the world? Doubt it...
Champ- & PvP-stuff: Again, no template, no experience. If they wanna try champs, there are enough tram ones, where friends can push the spawn. Will probably only taking dirt naps once they reach level 3 at latest.
Community Collections: Where would they get the items/gold to donate? So, pointless...
Repeatable quests: Don't even know, which ones that would be, so can't say anything about it.
BODs: They would probably survive the 14 days without them. Besides, they woulkd have a hard time filling them, when they also need the resources to train up their skills.

On the other hand we have the bank item limit: Trial 125, EJ 25. That makes a huge difference. When you don't know what to keep and what to dump, you need every space you can get. Even if your friends tell you, that it might not be worth that much. Especially when you're a pack-rat type of player. Or even better, have a vet give him 30 repair deeds, lol.

So yeah, I'm not convinced. New players were better off with trial than EJ.
The purpose of EJ is to give new players, which are very few, a look at UO not allow them to just play for free forever. So to you any vet that is over 100 in a skill is not worthy to use EJ to come back to see what UO is about. EJ will bring more Vets back than new subs. You cant say that over GM lvl is no biggy and then turn around and let Vets back in with skills greater then GM lvl also Fel is a huge deal just because you do not use it, it is the other half of UO. 14 days isn't enough time to ever get your little toe wet to try and understand UO.
 

Dot_Warner

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Without some form of advertising, even something as passive as another Massively fluff piece, UO won't be luring in an appreciable number of new players.

The word has to get out in some form other than vets pestering their friends.
 

Swordsman

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EA is changing their business. They charge players a subscription fee, players will be able to play a pool of EA games without additional fees. If EA includes EJ in this pool, we will see lots of new players.
 

Thrakkar

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So to you any vet that is over 100 in a skill is not worthy to use EJ to come back to see what UO is about. EJ will bring more Vets back than new subs. You cant say that over GM lvl is no biggy and then turn around and let Vets back in with skills greater then GM lvl also Fel is a huge deal just because you do not use it, it is the other half of UO.
Why do you bring up vets? I was comparing EJ to the old free trial system.
So yes, for a new player wo created a new player account, skills over 100 don't matter, because he wouldn't have been able to reach that within those 14 days. Same goes for my fel argument. So I think you're mixing something up here.
I agree, that EJ "could" bring back more vets than new players, but not in its current state. There are tons of good examples of how to do F2P in the industry. UO currently isn't one.

The purpose of EJ is to give new players, which are very few, a look at UO not allow them to just play for free forever.
But that's exactly what players can do with EJ ;)

14 days isn't enough time to ever get your little toe wet to try and understand UO.
The journey is endless ;)
 

Thrakkar

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EA is changing their business. They charge players a subscription fee, players will be able to play a pool of EA games without additional fees. If EA includes EJ in this pool, we will see lots of new players.
If you're talking of Origin Access, it doesn't contain any subscription-based game as far as I could see (please correct me if I'm wrong).
I highly doubt they would add a freemium game like UO currently is to that list.
 
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