• Hail Guest!
    We're looking for Community Content Contribuitors to Stratics. If you would like to write articles, fan fiction, do guild or shard event recaps, it's simple. Find out how in this thread: Community Contributions
  • Greetings Guest, Having Login Issues? Check this thread!
  • Hail Guest!,
    Please take a moment to read this post reminding you all of the importance of Account Security.
  • Hail Guest!
    Please read the new announcement concerning the upcoming addition to Stratics. You can find the announcement Here!

UO's Deadest Shard - Balhae

Theo_GL

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
If you go by Luna, Balhae seems like UO's deadest shard. There are currently 5-6 spots where you can place a house in the Luna ring, one plot is under decay and 4-5 more are for sale.

The spots are not small spots either - a couple can hold max storage houses.

Pretty dead over there.
 

Poo

The Grandest of the PooBah’s
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Campaign Benefactor
when i get bored i make new toons.

i recently made a couple guys on Balhae and i can confirm that it is the deadest shard in game.
good luck buying anything on that server!
 

syndael

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Wow, I just ran around Luna, that fact that I can place a 18by18 is mind blowing, I wonder what Ice island looks like LOL
 

Theo_GL

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Wow, I just ran around Luna, that fact that I can place a 18by18 is mind blowing, I wonder what Ice island looks like LOL
On most of the overseas dead shards - everyone playing has a castle. There are open castle spots. I'd be surprised if you couldn't find a handful or more of castle spots on Balhae.
 

SlobberKnocker

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
some of my guildies made some characters there to spawn. u can pretty much do w/e u want there. lately though i can also accomplish that on my own shard so whats the point. from the east coast i was pretty laggy as well.
 

THP

Always Present
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
there are quite a few castle spots here empty on this shard ........then again with luna spots too....who the hell wants to play a shard with 50 players or less...this shard deffo need migrating/linking to another...
 
Last edited:

THP

Always Present
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
WELL big fall day 3 is coming.........the shards are gonna get a lot emptier......and i mean.....A LOT!!!
 

Warpig Inc

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Lets see. 50 players. 50 players on one shard with 3-5 accounts. Accounts that live on that one shard. 200 houses on average on each shard owned by a few. Few in the eyes of the money grubbers at EA? 200 accounts owned by 50 players or 200 players. Money earned the same just less characters to run into.
 
Last edited:

DJAd

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Just went for a wonder around Luna and a very sad state of affairs. Yep, as above, a few Luna inside wall spots available. Would it even be worth merging this shard? Just the residents all transfer tokens then delete it!
 

Gameboy

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
All the shards are losing players, even Atlantic. In the last six months or so, the space next to my Atlantic house has been empty and then had a house placed on it 3 or 4 times already. It was empty over the holidays and then someone placed there about 2 days ago. I noticed tonight that it's bare grass again. That tells me that finding a bigger location than that one on Atlantic is getting easier and easier.

I really hope that when we start seeing publishes with the stuff that was on the devs' wish list at the September meeting that we will also see EA provide some good, positive publicity for UO and/or some kind of a campaign to get former players to return.

It seems to me that with an in-game vendor search coming up, currency conversion, champ spawn revamp, player-run councils, some kind of change that allows us to have more co-owners on houses, secondary houses on Siege, not being able to sell duped items on vendors, and all of the server maintenance that is apparently happening, that EA is making some big changes behind the scenes to support all this and I can't see them making that kind of investment of money and time without also planning to do something to get more players back into UO. However, we're also getting close to the end of EA's current fiscal year (March 31st) and I think it's always kind of a scary time in terms of layoffs, budget cutbacks, and project cancellations. Hopefully if all goes well for the team, we'll start seeing some real momentum in April and May again.
I've never seen as much open space to place a house on Atlantic as I have recently it's amazing to me. I remember a time I was lucky to place a 7x7 home.
 
Last edited:

Vor

Grand Inquisitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I've never seen as much open space to place a house on Atlantic as I have recently it's amazing to me. I remember a time I was lucky to place a 7x7 home.
I remember a time on Europa when a 7*7 would cost you over 4m. Now Trammel keeps sell for little more than 3 times that. It's a real shame, but each day UO looks a little more dead as more homes drop than are placed.
 

Gameboy

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I do like that when I do log into Atlantic there are people there :) sometimes a lot of people :)
 

Vor

Grand Inquisitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
More people on Atlantic at stupidly off peak hours than on Europa at prime time :(
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Campaign Supporter
I remember a time on Europa when a 7*7 would cost you over 4m. Now Trammel keeps sell for little more than 3 times that. It's a real shame, but each day UO looks a little more dead as more homes drop than are placed.
I remember when I finally got my first house on GL it cost me 5 million for a tiny small tower. A year later it cost me about 14 million for a villa.... and back then if you actually thought to purchase gold the going rate was about 20 to 25 dollars per million. Now a keep might run you 20 bucks but gold is like 30 to 70 cents a million...

Back then houses almost never fell.... now they don't stop falling, everywhere you look there is a house falling or a vacant spot that is HUGE.
 

Gameboy

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I do wonder if UO was advertised would it bring in players. I really do not see many ads for online games other then WoW.
 

Sir Ophid of Yew

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I do wonder if UO was advertised would it bring in players. I really do not see many ads for online games other then WoW.
I agree completely. I have always wished UO would advertise in some way!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
 

lucitus

UOEC Modder
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
All the shards are losing players, even Atlantic. In the last six months or so, the space next to my Atlantic house has been empty and then had a house placed on it 3 or 4 times already. It was empty over the holidays and then someone placed there about 2 days ago. I noticed tonight that it's bare grass again. That tells me that finding a bigger location than that one on Atlantic is getting easier and easier.

I really hope that when we start seeing publishes with the stuff that was on the devs' wish list at the September meeting that we will also see EA provide some good, positive publicity for UO and/or some kind of a campaign to get former players to return.

It seems to me that with an in-game vendor search coming up, currency conversion, champ spawn revamp, player-run councils, some kind of change that allows us to have more co-owners on houses, secondary houses on Siege, not being able to sell duped items on vendors, and all of the server maintenance that is apparently happening, that EA is making some big changes behind the scenes to support all this and I can't see them making that kind of investment of money and time without also planning to do something to get more players back into UO. However, we're also getting close to the end of EA's current fiscal year (March 31st) and I think it's always kind of a scary time in terms of layoffs, budget cutbacks, and project cancellations. Hopefully if all goes well for the team, we'll start seeing some real momentum in April and May again.
I cant confirm that Europa looks very well these days, i mean compared the last two years. It is very fluent, there are times more people playing, now there are playing more, there will be times especially in summer not so much people are playing.

The devs have done great work with the Exodus, but it is neccessary that they are revamping the loot of peerless bosses, Doom and Champions!

You should be able to get the best loot from the strongest bosses ingame.
 

Aurelius

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I do wonder if UO was advertised would it bring in players. I really do not see many ads for online games other then WoW.
Bizarrely, when I went to see the hobbit in the local cinema mid-December, the adverts included ones for WoW and - more surprisingly - Runescape....
 

Gameboy

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Bizarrely, when I went to see the hobbit in the local cinema mid-December, the adverts included ones for WoW and - more surprisingly - Runescape....
I there could be an ad for Runescape then I see no reason why there could not be one for UO. I do not see UO going up against WoW (even if I feel UO is a better game). I do think that UO has to be at least as good as Runescape or much better. I never played it but I have seen it.
 
Last edited:

GalenKnighthawke

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Just went for a wonder around Luna and a very sad state of affairs. Yep, as above, a few Luna inside wall spots available. Would it even be worth merging this shard? Just the residents all transfer tokens then delete it!
Oh look, someone proposing a shard merger.

Who'd have thought that there would be an attempt to promote this particular idea in a thread like this. Surely not I.

The last time we heard something from someone who could actually know, as opposed to make reasonable inferences (reasonable inferences surely have their place but it's not the same thing as knowing), the least-populated shard was Mugen, followed by Siege as the 2nd least populated. What those have in common is not geography. This was a long-ago post by Draconi, now, sadly, deleted.

I guess that could've changed. (And really admitting I can be wrong about stuff is the worst mistake I ever made about Stratics, Stratics is not kind to those who admit they can be wrong, but it's too late to change personas.)

As small as any shard is there's going to be people who like it being that small. Somehow I doubt the cost of server space is so extreme as to make it economically worth it to piss those people off to merge their shards.

How do I know that? Because if it were any other way EA would have deleted the small shards already.

-Galen's player
 

Lythos-

Lore Master
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I do wonder if UO was advertised would it bring in players. I really do not see many ads for online games other then WoW.
This is the age of social media. Word of mouth on Facebook and Twitter by players would help. Other than that a pre video add on youtube would work absolute miracles, for a short time at least.
 

GalenKnighthawke

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Whenever I see people talking about advertising UO I can't help but think of someone who see as ad, thinks "wow, they're still around?! I was always curious," signing up, running around, liking it, finishing the New Haven quests, and the popping on Stratics to ask advice about how to proceed.

Then, he meets us.

And this is assuming he makes it past Global Chat.

-Galen's player
 

Gameboy

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I think for me if I did not play UO it would have been a missed opportunity for me.
 

Madrid

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
The fact the Balhae is dead is exactly why I have characters there and it's one of the shards I scouted prior to making a full roster of characters on multiple accounts. If I want busy I'll go to Atlantic or some other Medium to High population shard.

Balhae is also where I tamed my Blaze Cu Sidhe. I walked into the Weald and there wasn't a soul in sight. No way that would have happened on other shards and I'd be without my Blaze!

There are many benefits of a low population shard and even more so for those that have Shard Shield tokens.

You can farm powerscrolls without worrying about being raided and you can farm whatever peerless Boss you want without having to worry about others interfering.

I love Balhae and it's an awesome place for those who just want some peace and quiet.
 

Zosimus

Grand Inquisitor
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Great place to farm scrolls just for fun. I used to play on some of those shards back in the day. I always found some good items extra cheap on those shards and xffer them back to my home shard. Had some great unique items.
 

Poo

The Grandest of the PooBah’s
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Campaign Benefactor
but if you merged all the korean shards together there would be no trees or mining places left for everyone, what with all the 'fully attended resource gatherers' that are there.

just saying.
 

Madrid

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
With transfer tokens and Shard Shields there absolutely no need for a merger of any shard.

If people aren't happy on the shard they're on and want to play on a populated shard they can migrate to one. Same goes for people who wish to play on a low populated shard.

The fact that Balhae has a low population is the exact reason I built characters there.

I have no desire to see a merger of Balhae or any other shard.

You gonna merge my Castle?
 

Gameboy

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I would think housing would be the single hardest thing about doing any type of merger in UO. On other games it's not as bad, maybe have to change your name but in UO the way housing is done I think would make it impossible.
 

GalenKnighthawke

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
There's really no good argument for shard mergers. If they could actually save more money than they would lose by doing it, they would have done it already. All of the arguments for shard mergers are bad ones, put forth by people who think Atlantic (regardless of its lag and stability issues) is too small and/or do not wish to spend any money to transfer.

-Galen's player
 

Gameboy

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
There's really no good argument for shard mergers. If they could actually save more money than they would lose by doing it, they would have done it already. All of the arguments for shard mergers are bad ones, put forth by people who think Atlantic (regardless of its lag and stability issues) is too small and/or do not wish to spend any money to transfer.

-Galen's player
Atlantic has always been my home shard. I ♥ it very, very much. Every time I log on there are people there and it just feels like a living breathing world, more so then other games I've played. I would like to know maybe the top 5 or 10 most populated shards.
 
Last edited:

GalenKnighthawke

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Atlantic has always been my home shard. I ♥ it very, very much. I would like to know maybe the top 5 or 10 most populated shards.

The top 2 US shards are unambiguously Atlantic and Great Lakes, in that order. After that it gets hazy.

Hope you didn't think I meant to insult Atlantic, just saying there are those who want shard mergers because they feel even Atlantic isn't populated enough for their needs, but then I have to wonder how they would handle the greater lag if even Altantic is too small for them.

-Galen's player
 
Last edited:

Gameboy

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
No, I did not feel you insulted Atlantic. I like it a lot and it's the only shard I've ever really played on. As for the population of Atlantic personally I feel it's just fine. If lag was not an issue I think hunting/mining/farming might be an issue if there are too many people on one shard.
 

DerekL

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
These are the shards that I think are probably the most populated at the present time, in no particular order:

North American - Atlantic, Great Lakes, Lake Superior, Pacific.
If LS is third... I shudder to think how depopulated those further down the list must me.
 

DerekL

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Be that as it may - But Atlantic is very, very noticeably more active than Lake Superior.
 

SunWolf

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Just so you all know, don't judge a shard by just Luna. Other countries don't use luna as we do in the states. It is just another place to place a house and not a mall. Balhae is problay the empties shard though but I still see active players on it which is 8am eastern. Don't understand then, but I see them. I spent a few hours runing around and see tons of clearings empty aswell. But there is houses all pushed up against moongates. Small ones
 
Last edited:
Top