LONG!!!!!!!!!!.....Worst things that x-sharding has brought to the game

**Tabbitha** · 27th August 2006, 02:59 AM

source taken from UO.UHall

I am going to start this thread with a story copied from the source thread and a picture ,and then see what everyone here has to say on the matter

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Well....all you citizens of Britannia...it is with mixed feelings that I bring you this tale.

After having found out about the new spell to vanquish the mysterious black flames....I hurried to Origin forums to post, hoping a few brave Originals would help me defeat the evil swirling mist that lie deep inside the terrathan lair. I waited....and waited.....to no avail. The Originals dissapointed me....shaking my head I turned to my ICQ....scanning in hopes of finding one brave soul...and found several. Unfortunatly they are my enemy....so with a heavy heart, I past the words of power on to my old guildmate in BTH, wishing them the best in defeating the monster. 20 minutes pass...it's dead...was easy.

Well...with 20 people I shouldn't wonder.....so YAY Origin is free of the swirling tornado Fel side...but what of the fate of Tram? The spawn there was thick....and still no Originals stepped up to the plate.

Around 12:20 AM Central....a friend of mine ICQ'd..so what's up? She says....having no clue of the events that transpired that day. So I sent her a link.....Hmm..she said...so what are you doing? Nothing....I say sadly....I am the only one brave enough to go inside the keep. What kind of char do you need? She says....well from what I was reading and hearing I said...Mages I think....so she suits up her mage...bless her! And another friend....WOW I have three brave souls willing to fight! But is that enough?

Sitting on my treasure hunter, for she's the only peacer I have...I gate us to the roof of the keep....winding our way down the tower ladders, area peacing all the way.....after several mishaps we finally make our way to the pit...and the evil-looking tornado that lies in wait....the three of us stare at it for a moment.....pondering....then I speak the words...An Sanct Flam.....WOOSH go the flames....earth ellies and EV's seem mind boggled, wandering up the ladder and getting eaten by the monster....as with Deamons as well....so I start casting mind blast...I have no Eval! Gm lockpicking and Carto leave no room! Trying to peace the beast leads to instant death and it actally left it's pedastal a few times to teach me a lesson....which I learned rather quickly~

Now this is the section of this tale that starts the debate

It was about this time a man dressed in all gold showed up....Hero....blinking, he kindly offered to help...it's easy he said...I've helped kill it on 5 shards already.....just keep me healed and cast fireballs....shrugging I added him to the party bringing us up to 4....then another popped out of hiding...Mortha...(SP) Kai our friend.....now we have 5. Again we douse the evil flames and lay waste upon the beast...or should I turn that around?

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WOOT! GO ORIGIN! I can't beleive we did this with 6 people.....I didn't even check my bank to see how much insurance I went through. Once it was redlined we all but one died again....grouping up for the final assault, I felt a rush of adrenaline.....we are doing this!

Back at it for one more go...pounding away.....when suddenly....I see this...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7.../Fireworks.jpg

back to the tale

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OMG IT'S DEAD???? WE DID IT??? I quickly ran around collecting black rocks......4 that I could see, 2 on the bridge that we couldn't get due to the berserkers that were there...I see our friend Hero running madly trying to find rock as well...and then he vanishes......I turn around amazed....and a berserker spawns before my eyes.....and wipes out...our entire party. I stood there for a moment in shock...did that just happen??? Hero...I say in party chat...where did you go? Oh I panic..hit wrong button sorry recalled out....??????? Why do you have your rune book open in the middle of a fight? Are you coming back to help us? I don't know how to get down there......but you said you helped kill in on 5 other shards.....oh someone gated me in from luna....*sigh* a covetor of black rock for sure....he took the goods and ran...leaving us to stand there...numbly watching as our bodies decay one...by one. Noone else in my party got any rock,.......I help stucked out the moment I realized that noone was coming to save us.

................... Amazingly enough.....after 3 minutes..everyones bones where gone...except mine.....our other party member tried stealthing in....I could have help stucked out again but you know how fast bones decay! I didn't think there was time! But my bones stayed......for almost 15 minutes....we stood there watching...hurry Kai hurry her bones are still here! We were in shock! I said jokingly....oh it's probably because I had the rock......

Almost 15 minutes later they finally dissappeared.....and we let out a collective sigh.....3 hours.....and nothing to show for it. Oh our friend Hero..I'm sure he got rock...and high tailed it out before the serkers spawned at the end.....

I went to bed at 3:35 this morning with a heavy heart...not even bothering to post this until now....and it was then, laying in bed...thinking about how long my bones stayed there......WAS it because I had the rock on my corpse? How magical IS this rock? And where does it come from?

.................... I pondered for awhile before posting.

I do, however, have an addition to make on behalf of our hero.

One of our party members confronted him in Luna not long ago....and he graciously gave her a piece of the precious rock...he apologized profusely for the mishap and said he was just there for fun....

So I have to say thank you to our hero...even though we lost most of the rock...we retain one small piece...thank you.

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So, he was a bit of a hero, after all. Still, he left before the task at hand was completed: wiping out all the Berserkers. What a nice ending that will make to the story.

Thanks for sharing! I really enjoyed reading your tale.

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victorious, yes....
yet so sad.....
for those of us who healed and rezz'd got no black rocks in our backpacks .....
and the hero that got the rock was healed and rezz'd numerous times by many of us......

we have the pictures to remember this..... would like to have memento i could lock down somewhere in my home though......... just to say "I was there, i did somethng to make a difference on my shard".......Great story Larrisa and you told it well! And with good pictures too!

I posted my feelings about this black rock greed in a couple other threads so I'm just going to cut to the chase here and say once again, it's unbelievable how greedy people in this game can be especially just for a turd of a black rock! I mean seriously that is so sad you can't even group with with someone unless you know them for years.

And again I told you devs before that you need to consider anti-griefing holes when you make a new system or content. That's what the devs do in my other games. You guys should have made it so that these black rocks were blessed so that after they drop in your backpack, you don't lose them or you don't have someone looting them from you.

This guy has been on multiple shards doing this?? That's so flippin sad. Greeeeeeeed! Yep some people think it's better to be greedy then have some good fun and share the loot with all involved. They just gotta have all they can get. These events should be bringing players closer together, unity man! Come on.

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Personally I hate inter-shard "event tourism", and see it as one of the worst things that x-sharding has brought to the game, alongside duping and other economic nightmares caused by the service.

Some people will turn up at every event on every shard for the soul purpose of farming valuable event items, which then either get x-sharded back to their home shard, or sold on for profit, more often than not on another shard.

It's definitely a kick in the balls for a community who may have spent weeks and months working on a huge scenario such as this, to have a tourist hop in at the last minute and reap the rewards. It's kinda like when players used to be able to run in and take one single swipe at the end of a fight with a dragon, and then loot the corpse dry, except on a MUCH larger scale, and the disappointment factor is much bigger for those who put in the work.

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Coming from the man who's giving it all up for charity....Hemi I commend you for that and 100% agree that people like that are only in it for the riches....and if I had known who it was in the first place would not have been AS angry ....still would have been angry though

We spent 3 hours down there...and even though it was a great time for all.....I will always remember the feeling that washed over me the moment he recalled out...and slowly watching that agonizing 15 minutes as my bones slowly turned to dust...knowing that our "hero" made off with the prize.

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Wilki UO Community Coordinator

I tend to agree with that sentiment. Unique items should stay on the shard that they originated from, as they are a part of that shard's history. I think that is one of the greatest downsides to character transfer.

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So there you have it.Its worth checking the link out to see the whole story and all the replies.

It just amazes me the lengths people will go to in their 'quest/greed' to have 'everything' going in the game.

Im not knocking rares collectors and auctioneers.I am just so far removed from this aspect of the game,I see things like this as a downright injustice,especially to those who put 3+ hrs into some thing and end up as the OP.......sad aspect of the game imo.

**DiP** · 27th August 2006, 05:59 AM

To be honest, the individual that wanted to gather after 12:20am Central is just as bad as Hero.

Most are not up or logged in on that shard at that time, and knowing that, you will only get a select few to come with you. Someone else said it, greed, may not be for gold/black rock, but greed to say "Look what I did!"

"I hurried to Origin forums to post, hoping a few brave Originals would help me defeat the evil swirling mist that lie deep inside the terrathan lair. I waited....and waited....."

If he/she/they wanted to try to make it a community thing, don't let anyone know that you can get past the flames, start a "Hunt" or "Get together" thread, try to get as many people involved a day or two in advance, inform them to be prepared to fight, and open a gate.

As for the x-sharding, IF people stop buying these types of things for outrageous amounts, it'd stop. The person looking to buy the item is just as bad as the person who gets it, if not worse.

**Maddux** · 27th August 2006, 07:26 AM

"Honor Amongst Thieves" There are no victims, as we are familar with all parties involved. The last price I saw the "Black Rock" going for was 10 mil a piece, so that in itself is a very motivational, but we all know that Origin is on another patch than the other shards no way anyone transfered in or out just yet.

**Tabbitha** · 27th August 2006, 08:24 AM

yes but this guy had a character on every shard and went round gathering up as much of the stuff as he could *scowls*

**DiP** · 27th August 2006, 08:28 AM

True.

**Maddux** · 27th August 2006, 08:59 AM

Most PvPers have characters on every on shard (So do Rpers), whether its to PvP or farm scrolls. What is the difference between scrolls and shard event items? There isn't much difference.

What can be done to stop this x-sharding of items? You can make the items unable to transfer, but then all that would happen is that the item will be sold to a private collecter(stashed away), and the gold transfered out. Lets say that if a shard completes an event, that event item would spawn in a town library or museum (or other suitable location) and be on permanent display there so everyone can enjoy it. Hopefully by clicking on it or hoovering your mouse over it, it gives you a brief description on where it came from.

**DiP** · 27th August 2006, 10:18 AM

*applauds*

That would make perfect sense. The description could include anything, or there could be a book laid next to whatever item with a storyline about the entire event/scenario.

Eowyna Rohanna · 27th August 2006, 10:27 AM

The problem, as I see it, goes back to the ridiculous sums people are willing to pay (both in gold pieces and real dollars) for pixels. Farming of items (scrolls or event items) is the simple result of greed on all sides. Sure, the ability to transfer characters plays a major part is the scheme of things, but such items always brought high prices even before transfer was enabled. They just went into the hands of the very wealthy (can we say dupers here?) on the home shard. Doesn't matter where the owner is, if the item is out of the public domain. I like the idea of things like the blackrock pieces spawning in the Vesper Museum as a permanent display.

Bo · 28th August 2006, 09:32 AM

I can re-assure that the stones found on Baja will be staying on Baja, as all of the pieces (or atleast like 90+% of them) are within my guild and the guy that got them doesnt plan on selling them or xfering them out. Just thought I'd throw that in there, that there is something staying put on atleast 1 shard.

Funny thing is he found them on accident after getting pked in fel, a rival guild killed it, didnt know about the stones, he saw the stones around the keep as a ghost, he came back with his stealther, stealthed around terra, got all them, then went to tram knowing how to do it, and got all those too..