Would EA and its customers (us) ever consider this idea-

[Førsaken]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Would it be possible to try and put a Pub 16 server up? Basically, a server that goes back in time and you can go back to 7xgm templates, magical items that have to be I.D.'d to know what they are, and just bring it back!

From EA/DEVs perspective, I honestly think this could make you money. I know you ultimately wish this game would end at times, but you guys did make a great game and just need to think about how many people would play this server. How many old school customers would come back and play, once the word got around?! In my opinion, I think you'd bring back more people then you think.

To the customers (Us), hey, I'm all for UO as it is now, and loved UO as it was. So I'm not being biased when I say, I think this would be a great turn around for Ultima Online. Who wouldn't want to kick it old school again? Hell, you might start off there out of boredom, maybe even curiosity, but I really think a lot would eventually make it their new home!

Yes, I know there are these "free shards" that already exist, but I personally find them ****ty. Whether I have lag issues, casting problems, compatibility issues on certain clients, biased mods, and people getting away with things due to knowing the server host(s) and gms.

Anyhow, I didn't get very detailed, but I think people see the point and I really hope to see some positive feedback from DEVs and the players.

 

[Lord Gareth]

Pub 16 I think that is one of the only Major pubs that have always stuck out in my mind. Sure lets do it! hehe I dunno. I think one reason people might not like (SP) is because yes I love the fel rule set but you still have Malas and T2A and Tokuno and all of these dumb other land masses. I think I would like it better with just the classic world temp

 

[Bc-]

We had a thread about this not that long ago.. but it was dated back farther than Pub 16. There was a slight majority that voted for a Classic server.. but there was also a strong amount of opposition from the player base. All of which had valid points.. well most of them did anyway.

I will say here what I said there.. it isn't a matter of IF EA will do this, but when.

Edit: I Found the thread for you..

http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=130902&highlight=Classic

Hope that works for you, not saying you should bump a thread that old, but here it is incase you want to take a look at the discussion.

 

[Førsaken]

We had a thread about this not that long ago.. but it was dated back farther than Pub 16. There was a slight majority that voted for a Classic server.. but there was also a strong amount of opposition from the player base. All of which had valid points.. well most of them did anyway.

I will say here what I said there.. it isn't a matter of IF EA will do this, but when.

Edit: I Found the thread for you..

http://vboards.stratics.com/showthread.php?t=130902&highlight=Classic

Hope that works for you, not saying you should bump a thread that old, but here it is incase you want to take a look at the discussion.

Ah didn't know this, try to stay away from UHall as much as possible. Well, I do think it'd rejuvenate the Ultima Online spirit, bring back players, etc. Start out with one server, see how it pans out.

 

[Førsaken]

Can I suggest adding a couple of options?

1) Pre AOS (has t2a/tram/ish/swampies)
2) Pre UOR (has t2a only, optional - skill/stats lock, housing security)


To refresh people's memory, the order of the expansions are:

The second Age (added the t2a lands)
Renaissance (added trammel)
3rd Dawn (added ilshenar)
Lord British's Revenge (no new lands, added fugly graphics, but has swampies)
Age of Shadows (added malas)
Samurai Empire (added tokuno)
Mondain's Legacy (added heartwood and elves)

Does Pre UOR have heal anat mages? I miss playing that!

 

[Belanos/Icicle]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Would it be possible to try and put a Pub 16 server up? Basically, a server that goes back in time and you can go back to 7xgm templates, magical items that have to be I.D.'d to know what they are, and just bring it back!

then drop all your 100.1+ skills down to 100 and play.

 

[GalenKnighthawke]

There have been, literally, dozens of threads on the issue of a custom rules set shard.

Proponents call it a "classic shard," I say "custom shard" because very rarely do such proposals actually involve an old rules set. At minimum, they involve an old rules set with modifications and/or with bug fixes. (Basically requiring the devs to go through old code, fix old bugs, then both implement and monitor a new shard with a separate rules set.)

The proponents of a custom rules shard are very loud and numerous....on these boards. I see little actual evidence that it'd do all that much for EA-Mythic from a business perspective. The arguments proponents use (the # of players alleged to be on free, non-EA shards; Stratics polls; talking to their friends; etc.) are suspicious at best. Further, the Siege experience shows us, if nothing else, that creating a custom rules set that caters to a small player base is a huge pain in the ass. Look at the number of Siege-centric posts and the amount of development time put into modifying things or making things for Siege. Lake Superior, for example, hasn't had an EM event in several weeks, and part of this appears to me to be due to the fact that one of LS's EMs is shared with Siege, a server with a minimal population but very, very loud voices.

Further, which time period upon which to base a custom rules set shard is the subject of bitter disputes among the proponents. People will say "the common thread is pre-AoS," but then one of the loudest voices says that a custom rules server would be "crap" (actual quote) if it weren't pre-Trammel. Then there's threads like this one that say pre-Publish 16 (which basically means pre-power scrolls). This is ironic, because scrolls were introduced to bring people to Felucca to balance out server loads (Khaldun having failed at this rather badly). Then people say pre-Second Age, thus restoring UO to a single map.

I don't anticipate posting in this thread again. The "arguments" are the same, such as they are, and minds will not change, because arguments for a custom rules shard are not based on reality, but on romance.

-Galen's player

 

[Cybrdragon]

There have been, literally, dozens of threads on the issue of a custom rules set shard.

Proponents call it a "classic shard," I say "custom shard" because very rarely do such proposals actually involve an old rules set. At minimum, they involve an old rules set with modifications and/or with bug fixes. (Basically requiring the devs to go through old code, fix old bugs, then both implement and monitor a new shard with a separate rules set.)

The proponents of a custom rules shard are very loud and numerous....on these boards. I see little actual evidence that it'd do all that much for EA-Mythic from a business perspective. The arguments proponents use (the # of players alleged to be on free, non-EA shards; Stratics polls; talking to their friends; etc.) are suspicious at best. Further, the Siege experience shows us, if nothing else, that creating a custom rules set that caters to a small player base is a huge pain in the ass. Look at the number of Siege-centric posts and the amount of development time put into modifying things or making things for Siege. Lake Superior, for example, hasn't had an EM event in several weeks, and part of this appears to me to be due to the fact that one of LS's EMs is shared with Siege, a server with a minimal population but very, very loud voices.

Further, which time period upon which to base a custom rules set shard is the subject of bitter disputes among the proponents. People will say "the common thread is pre-AoS," but then one of the loudest voices says that a custom rules server would be "crap" (actual quote) if it weren't pre-Trammel. Then there's threads like this one that say pre-Publish 16 (which basically means pre-power scrolls). This is ironic, because scrolls were introduced to bring people to Felucca to balance out server loads (Khaldun having failed at this rather badly). Then people say pre-Second Age, thus restoring UO to a single map.

I don't anticipate posting in this thread again. The "arguments" are the same, such as they are, and minds will not change, because arguments for a custom rules shard are not based on reality, but on romance.

-Galen's player

More like hundreds of threads over the years. Players keep asking for a classic shard, and EA won't do it. Mainly because no one can agree on what constitutes "classic," and also because they don't want to maintain a separate set of code. KR was an attempt to unify all into one set of code (though it failed dismally). I don't see a classic shard happening, ever, except on freeshards, where they are quite successful and well-received.

I personally have the same feeling of nostalgia about pre-pub 16 UO, and also even pre-Trammel UO. But I think I would quickly get bored with such a static shard, as would others. I don't think it's possible to ever bring that same feeling back, just like you can't relive your teenage years, or any other stage of your life that was "the best." UO will never have that same new feeling again for vets, just like WoW or any other game, won't either. (People are already asking for "classic" WoW servers after less than 5 years, lol. They have the same two problems I mentioned with the UO crowd, lack of agreement, and separate code to maintain.) Although I think DAoC was able to do it successfully, so who really knows...

I totally agree with the above poster about the "romance" nature of the arguments.

 

[Phaen Grey]

More like hundreds of threads over the years. Players keep asking for a classic shard, and EA won't do it. Mainly because no one can agree on what constitutes "classic,"

This is one of the reasons, the other is maintaining such a shard with updates to the rest of the shards etc.; individual rulesets make a lot of extra work for preparing updates.

 

[Draxous]

There are only 4 rulesets to really pick from for a classic shard... a simple survey (much like they sent out during AoS to the email of all UO subscribers or ex-subscribers) would do the trick...

To highlight the differences and really the only ones that seem to be popular (not many REALLY enjoyed UO more before eval int, mediation and anatomy.)

Precast days - Halberd (double hally hits) as well as DP katanas, mace or swords mages with dexers (Parry was uber hard to train yet made you almost invincible.) Magic reflect items reflected the spell... 1 charge = 1 spell.

UOR - spellbook auto armed when you cast a spell. Mindblast did damage based on the differences between your stats (str, int, dex) and special moves were introduced (frequency of special move depended on how much int you had) fencing = paralyze, swords = concussion, macing = crushing... archery had none.

UOLBR - spellbooks no longer armed when you casted. Stun punch and disarm were added (anat + wrestle = stun and arms lore + wrestle = disarm) Small circle spells were made so that damage done was determined by proximity to target... closer you were to target, the more damage you did.

Publish 16 - same rules as UOLBR, but this is where the introduced powerscrolls. A mage with 120eval and magery could kill a player with 100.0 resist with just explosion ebolt. Stat loss (short term murder counts) was removed from the old-world dungeons and t2a.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway... acting like this would be hard to figure out is absurd. It would take 2 seconds to set up a survey and hit up their already existing database.

The real issue is that this Dev team is focused on SA and nothing else as they should be. I imagine that even after SA is released, they will be focused on tweaking things, fixing bugs and pushing out the next bits of content.

Maybe a few months after SA is released... they'll consider something like this, but for you all to be dismissing this idea (when it's obvious so many want it) is ridiculous.

Remember, they said long ago that they couldnt do character transfers. They said they couldn't do necromancy. They said they couldn't a lot of things they turned around and wound up doing.

Food for thought.

 

[Kael]

If there has been literally hundreds of threads about a "classic" shard then perhaps its because the loyal customer base demands one

Most companies recognize a customers needs and try to fill it