Why were two asian shards shut-down?

[Zeitgeist]

I read on another thread that two asian shards were shut down, which ones were they and why?

Were the players given the opportunity to move their characters/items elsewhere or were just screwed?

 

[The_Traveler]

Not sure if they were or not.
We would have to get word from OSI on that one.

For what it's worth, the asian shards are handled differently from the other ones around the world.
They have their own rules and controls.

 

[imported_RepoMan]

And the thread that you got that info from was locked because the poster was fabricating his story. We'd have to get some info that confirms a shut down of servers. I dont watch the Japanese servers. And, provided that these servers did shut down, it never said how long they were up.

 

[Luthien. Elf]

I don't watch them either but would wonder if it was that they were actually up and runing and then shut down or was it that they just decided not to put two servers in after they said they were going to. In other words they said well based on population we don't need to bring up those two servers like we thought we might.

 

[LeBaiton]

Baekdu shard, a siege style asian server, was shut down because of lack of interrest/population (I think, can't remember, because the original message can't be found on www.uo.com anymore). It closed on the 8th of June 2002, and from what I remember, the hardware was reused to open a new shard (if my memory's still intact)...

I believe that's the only shard ever to close...

 

[Guest]

And Baekdu was a special case - if memory serves, it was a special Korean server designed for public game rooms. An experiment, if you will, that didn't work.

All you have to do is log into UO and look at the shards, all of the shards are still there, for all of the continents.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I read on another thread that two asian shards were shut down, which ones were they and why?

<hr></blockquote>
If there's a rumor being started that we are haphazardly shutting down shards, please allow me to quash that rumor right here.

Any such rumor may be based upon faulty recollections of the Baekdu shard. Baekdu was an experimental shard, and the only non-test shard that we have ever decommissioned. It was located in Korea and prepared exclusively for use in Korean internet game rooms (or "IGRs"). About two years ago, we initiated the Baekdu project and allowed it to run for a predetermined number of months for testing. After that period, we decided to not pursue this variation on the UO service.

No shards were ever decommissioned before Baekdu, nor have any been decommissioned since. Further, we have no plans to decommission any shards in the future.

I hope that helps clear things up.

 

[Guest]

Yay! I remembered correctly!

Dang Alzheimers. At least I get to meet new people every day.

 

[Guest]

damn you...*shakes fist*...a large group of American players had just invaded that shard to claim as our own when you shut it down...it was fun, I recall Crazy Joe 8x8ing skills on Dagger Island because of the lack of housing there...we had one group that was prepared to take over factions, and another group that was going to introduce disarm thieves...LOL, now that may have been the most fun I have had in game...but all for naught...la

 

[The_Traveler]

Thank you Sannio.

 

[YukonJack]

Thank You Rico

I was about to go off the deep end if I didn't get to read one of your posts soon.

 

[Guest]

No shards were ever decommissioned before Baekdu, nor have any been decommissioned since.

Thats not entirely true Sannio... Ya remember the Abyss shard? It was an American shard that was brought down if I recall..&gt;Something about faulty equipment or something like that.

It might be more accurate to say that no shards will be brought down without justifiable reasons /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[Xavier_Arcanus]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Abyss considered a Test shard? And as Sannio stated, Baekdu is the only non-test shard that had been decommissioned, so the exemption to his statement would apply to Abyss.

 

[Fayetora]

Well, Mugen was in same situation as Baekdu?

I remember Mugen must survive 3 or 4 months of testing period before becoming legit server. If not enought ppl played there, OSI was to shut it down.

...and now with upcoming pub23, I know lots of ppl from Mugen is transfering to other shard with infamous "Mugen Dupe Gold"
If Mugen does not meet required server population, is OSI is planning (or even an option) to shut Mugend down?

 

[RenaiQuelor]

<blockquote><hr>

Well, Mugen was in same situation as Baekdu?

I remember Mugen must survive 3 or 4 months of testing period before becoming legit server. If not enought ppl played there, OSI was to shut it down.

...and now with upcoming pub23, I know lots of ppl from Mugen is transfering to other shard with infamous "Mugen Dupe Gold"
If Mugen does not meet required server population, is OSI is planning (or even an option) to shut Mugend down?

<hr></blockquote>

Mugen is an Asian SP ruleset shard. It wasn't designed for IGR clients. It's also been open for a rather long time.

 

[Guest]

If it was a test shard..It was on of the longest running ones around... Seems to me that it was one of the first shards available. My point here though isn't to get into semantics... Only to be aware of the past so as to not box yourself in /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[Cody McCourt]

according to the UOHoC it said one was in fact shut down but was intended and was more like a testing server that they vdidn't ant to keeop ruleset type in Ultima Online.

 

[Underwater Ape]

Shards that have been shutdown or altered:

Baekdu
Volunteer Shard
Abyss
AOL Legends (Started getting localization updates and then converted from AOL only to allow general internet.)

 

[Underwater Ape]

Mugen has a Trammel. Different than Siege.

 

[The_Traveler]

For those not familiar with Mugen.
It does have a Trammel facet, but it has the normal Siege rules on all facets including the Tram one.

 

[imported_DarkVoid]

<blockquote><hr>

Any such rumor may be based upon faulty recollections of the Baekdu shard. Baekdu was an experimental shard, and the only non-test shard that we have ever decommissioned. It was located in Korea and prepared exclusively for use in Korean internet game rooms (or "IGRs"). About two years ago, we initiated the Baekdu project and allowed it to run for a predetermined number of months for testing. After that period, we decided to not pursue this variation on the UO service.

<hr></blockquote>

The answer is in all likelyhood going to be "no", but I do recollect logging on to that shard a few times, do you still have any backups of that shard?

Being decomissioned, I'm of the opinion that backups of it would have been erased or archived, although my thinking at this time tends towards erasure of them.

But I won't know for sure if I don't ask. /php-bin/shared/images/icons/smile.gif

Cheers ...

DarkVoid

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

decommissioned

<hr></blockquote>

Is that the word you will be using when you shut down my shard?

 

[kazua]

"Abyss Test" was closed on July 13, 1999, and reopened as "Siege Perilous"
on July 15, 1999.
BTW, do you notice the name Abyss "Test"?

 

[LiquidFire]

Ummm.... Yeah hi... What does any of this matter?? And why bother picking apart what Sannio had to say?? At least he was nice enuf to fill us all in..
*Shruggz*
Euragh... Its 3am.. I needa new hobby..

 

[Inspiration]

If you did plan to decommision a shard in the future, the char transfer system would come in pretty handy if you did... just thinking out loud..

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Thats not entirely true Sannio... Ya remember the Abyss shard? It was an American shard that was brought down if I recall..&gt;Something about faulty equipment or something like that.

It might be more accurate to say that no shards will be brought down without justifiable reasons

<hr></blockquote>
Yes, I recall the Abyss shard, but it wasn't a permanant production shard. It was a test shard that was up for an extended period of time.

 

[Bluheart]

Sannio has anyone taken a head count on Arirang since phase 3 was implimented? It's a virtual wasteland there now. The population had already severely declined long before phase 3. I'd like to know just how many houses fell there last month. I'd hazzard a guess 3 in 5 fell.

How much population does there have to be on a server to make it viable? If it did get closed, what happens to those of us that have played there for over 4 years? Baekdu was an experimental shard and only open for a short amount of time, but Arirang has been a production shard for over 4 years. What would happen to all of our chars and belongings?

With the ping worsening over time to an average of 300 and massive lag spikes up to 1700 lasting for minutes at a time, it has become unplayable for me in dangerous situations. (One can only do so much crafting.) The only location with any kind of population is the WBB and a rush there is probably 30 people on a good day. Since phase 3, the only place to find a decent player vendor representation is Luna. Fel has been empty for ages and Trammel is nearly so. While I am planning to make a xshard transfer with at least one char to LS, I won't be able to take everything I have accumulated on Ari the past 4 years.

If the shard were shut down, what would happen to the long time residents? I am not the only one concerned about this. I have some HK friends that have remained on Ari and are also concerned for it's future.

 

[CitizenKane2]

<blockquote>While I am planning to make a xshard transfer with at least one char to LS, I won't be able to take everything I have accumulated on Ari the past 4 years</blockquote>

Well, each character transfer allows you to take up to 889 items in theory, so with 5 character transfers ... 4,425 items can be taken to another shard (excluding your uo home and assuming you're prepared to pay for 5 transfers onto 5 blank slots in your destination shard).

I won't comment on the rest of your post save to say that, I do have similar concerns about Formosa (Taiwan). The lack of events on the shards run by EA Korea (Arirang, Balhae and Formosa) is especially worrying.

 

[Guest]

If OSI ever did end up shutting down a production shard they would most likely give all characters on that shard a free transfer to any other shard. I doubt they would try to do a "server merge" which has happened in Shadowbane and another game.

 

[ammn]

Hope they will not close any shard. Balhae is a GhostTown now i saw at least 10 spot which you can place a tower.

 

[Fayetora]

Sutting down shard is OSI's decision or EA's?

EA Japan just moved their office to Roppongi, Tokyo...which is like 5th Ave in NYC. They must be paying fortune!! probably 3 -5 even 10 times more than old location.
To cover this cost, they may just say "shut down xxxxx!"

Looks like EA (USA)trying to save money by using non-english speaking CSRs, but EA Japan spending millions of $! (yes dollar, not yen)
Sometimes I feel for devs... struggle with EA must be pretty frustrating~

 

[kazua]

<blockquote><hr>


EA Japan just moved their office to Roppongi, Tokyo...which is like 5th Ave in NYC. They must be paying fortune!! probably 3 -5 even 10 times more than old location.


<hr></blockquote>
Don't worry about that. There are so many vacant office spaces in Roppongi
area due to large-scale developments done in recent years whilst in this
economic stagnation in Japan, resulting rents to go down drastically.
There are landlords who happily offer their properties rent-free for one year.
So, I suppose EAJ's move is to reduce their expense.