Since the UO numbers drop and drop this might be the only sollution to keep some fun in RP.

But it also means a huge change and needs to be pulled of very delicate to not "hurt" the character histories and playstyle.

Lets face it.. To have it as it is, then we need more players to actually have fun with it.. Which wont happen - People just dont come back anymore (I dont see a reason for me to get back as it is and know many more feel the same)

With a change like this maybe more people will get intressted in "instant" rp and log on more often?

But as I said... needs to be pulled off delicate. Id suggest an bigger Island like the one Tremere got and put each guild in different corners - Best would be if we'd own every darn house too...

I very much like the idea, but it will only happen due to utmost necessity and not because someone thinks its a great idea.

People stick to their own hotspot and wait that other RPers join them, instead of leaving their own place and joining others. Basically everyone just sits and waits and hope someone else makes the first move. Then eventually some people make the move and give up their own place and join others, or they get bored and lured by other MMOs and leave for good.
Unless some guild or group really wants to take the plunge there's little chance of changing the status quo.

Personally I think it's a good idea to "shrink" and inhabit a smaller section of the world. Then again, where will it be? One group will always have an advantage, unless you move to a totally uninhabited area, and the "newcomers" will feel like they've drawn the shorter straw. Then you have to merge different playstiles and interpretations of rules.
So you would probably need a few good GMs behind you who fully support this idea and communicate it to their members and give it a try. You don't need all guilds at first. Just a few who are really commited. If the plan works, more may join, if not, people will just get more disillusioned.

Personally I'm a fan of the "2 hotspots" idea. Because you need 2 sides who can oppose each other for whatever reason (e.g. well-off part of town vs. shady part of town as in Trinsic, Loyalists vs. Rebels, Good vs. Evil) There's no story without conflict. The conflict doesn't always have to be hot, but it should be there to give characters a reason to exist. Also it could help to seperate playstiles a bit. Also I think it may help to detach the RP from player run cities (as the house owning guilds always have an advantage over the newcomers) or cities where RP mostly takes place in player run houses (hello Vesper ;) ) and move it back to NPC towns where it doesn't matter for RP if you actually own a house or not.

I (get ready for this, sit down, hold something, brace yourself) agree with VanQa, really. It's something I've said before - generally the interests of people are just too different to really make one, single, centralized community work. I don't think she's even being especially selfish, she's spent years building up the Elven Quarter and that just wouldn't be achievable anywhere else.

I think, howevermanyyears on, Stonekeep is still the best player-made-town anywhere in UO and I think it'd be a crying shame to ever see it surrendered for the sakes of any new community.

I do think Yew has potential - Tel'mar mk 2 (Formerly Sanctum Town), Nihon, The Shire, Deepwood and Cedarwood all still stand or could be formed and the D'Gar clearing is a little town in itself. If the people that own these places could be discovered and communicated with you could house three or four guilds in Yew in fantastic, pre-made environments. Oh, I forgot Kallahar, too.

But you'd need the guilds to go there and the reasons to go there. Realistically Europa RP's probably, what, in it's last 18 months? I just think by now we're past the chance to try and resuscitate the game and are best just trying to make the best out of the situation we're in.

*sees your list and mourns the loss of Tolagal*

I'm glad for all your replies. It's nice to see people interested and maybe the idea can be pushed forward with more people involved.

*nods*

If I wasn't already in Trinsic (and elven quarter), I'd personally go for yew, it's just so huge no one can really compete with it. Besides I love the unique underground catacombs from when I played UD especially. Yes and yes.

Don't get me wrong, I still love Cove's barony and other places in use like our very own marble island.

I think we all still want this to work atleast, however vast the challanges seem. Yes, might I suggest we fight to decide an area to focus in? noooo..? didn't think so

Yew's just the biggest expanse of free space for players to make their own settlements. There isn't really that in Vesper or Trinsic.

Cove found the perfect space - but there's no room around it for OTHER guilds. Yew is just a huge, massive, expansive forest full of nicely-spaced out clearings. I don't think there's any space in UO as good as Yew for a centralized community of player-run arenas.

Of course, if you prefer the NPC settlements then I guess there's plenty of potential around Trinsic. Personally, my favourite big city is Britain by leagues and leagues. It's just a shame you'd have to work around the 'taints'.

I think you can forget any attempt trying to relocate players AND their houses. People get very much attached to their virtual pixel homes. Most people just do not want to risk being worse off after a move, beside from investing a lot of work of moving, redecorating and house hunting.

That's why I think the best way would be to move to a NPC town because the buildings there don't advantage or disadvantage anyone. People can keep their current houses, wherever they may be. Also nobody is "owning" the place: i.e. nobody gets special treatment because they can control guild-only doors, have access to storage or can change whatever building they want. Everyone is on the same terms in a NPC town.

Britain would be indeed nice, but even on Cats, where RPing in NPC towns was pretty big, nobody ever managed to successfully run a Brits guild (just too much 3rd party interference to spoil immersion).

Yew was also on Cats the #1 place, simply because of all the available housing space and with 2 hangout spots for evil characters (Orc Fort area & Yew Crypts).

Second favorite, just as on Europa, was Trinsic. Skara Brae and Jhelom were also fairly popular because there weren't many non-RPers there.
Jhelom was pretty nice to RP. The town is very big and PvP is a lot of fun there, especially the fortifications around the 2 Docks are very nice for city warfare and sieges. There are also 2 other islands available, so you're not running into each other all the time, if you need some privacy for guild only events.

I don't think you need to be cynical about "zomg people's pixel homes." I don't think it's as simple as that.

What E-V, or DoT as they now are, have in the elven quarter is a community of houses that works very, very well for their function. Similarly Stonekeep, it's a fantastic, perfect even, clearing and arena. The Swaggers is another similar hotspot. Everything from the building to it's location to the convenient meadow around it is perfect.

It isn't easy finding a location like that, it really isn't. Like I said, Yew is blessed with a number of FANTASTIC player towns that are already set up. The problem being that for the most part they're owned by largely inactive or absent players and no one, for the most part, has an interest in moving to them.

Gwen, for example, isn't scared of "losing" her precious UO thingz. She just knows that she has an absolutely perfect location for her current guild and that she'll probably never get something as ideal should she move. I think you can understand her hesitance and likewise the hesitance of VTC and Grd (who, most likely, will NEVER move.)

I didn't try being cynical for once (why, aren't those virtual homes made of pixels? ) and there's no reason for you to read things in my post which I haven't actually said. I'm not having an agenda or a reason to dish out against anyone here.

But thanks for supplying some examples for my argument. Those are exactly the reasons why people are attached to their houses. Nothing wrong with that at all. It just presents a problem for the everyone-in-one-place idea. Which is pretty obvious as nobody can be in two places at once - even those people with 7 characters in 7 different guilds.

For the everyone-in-one-place RP plan, someone has to let go of their (mini) hub / establishment and move into a place together with other people... or you can try rounding up people who aren't tied to a location.
Unless this happens, there's little chance that this everyone-in-one-place idea will ever succeed. And while I think this idea is intriguing, I'm not blaming anyone for not attempting it yet.

Sounds pretty !!!!ing cynical to me.

A lot of good contributions made so far in this discussion. I think it's a good idea to list possible solutions and places: It's easier to have something concrete to hold on to when discussing this further.

I agree with Floria as she wrote earlier in the thread that there could be two different approaches to this: The first moving the community to a more centralized area (like Greater Yew, Southern Britannia (Greater Trinsic), Vesper-Minoc-Cove, or an island) or moving to (one or two) towns (such as Britain, Trinsic or Serpent's Hold).

The second approach, of moving to a city (or maybe two?) reminds me a lot of the initial ideas surrounding the formation of CoRE: ERPA was split up in a vast number of cities, some guilds broke loose and decided to focus their efforts on two cities (Vesper and Trinsic), making one community. This is also a good idea, but I'm sceptical as to what guilds we might pursuade to move and as to which town(s) it would be situated around.

I think it's pretty obvious that the latter isn't going to work unless a few of the currently alive guilds suddenly falls over and disbands. As it is today, there are three/four hotspots for role-playing: Trinsic, Vesper, Yew and Cove. (Please correct me if I'm mistaken here, I haven't played for a while.)

As I mentioned earlier, I'd be willing to put my effort in if it would be possible to reach a mild consensus on a rough plan or strategy. Personally, I've got to agree with Kaelith that the Vesper-Minoc-Cove area would be the most sensible one to bet on, considering that you'd have to move the fewest guilds. So I'm arguing this from a rational point of view.

That said, I'm pretty sure you could make similar arguments for both Trinsic and Yew, especially if you take into consideration the player-owned villages and towns.

whatever.

Feel free PM me
*sighs* why do threads on RP forums always take a turn like this? You know, I told you it wasn't meant cynical now just let it be. Next time if you think anyone may have a problem with my thread just let them speak up for themselves. ...

Anyone feel free to delete this post. I just had to get this off my mind.

And thanks for reminding me what this community is all about



Floria - I tried to pm you about this message, but it didn't go through for some reason... I saved your original post, as I don't like to edit other peoples posts very much. Only did some "deletions" in the post. Thanks, Aly