I have played UO from the beginning...and Meridian 59 before that...some things have changed that I didn't like...but all in all I still love this game.
Do I miss having a start up character ganked every time I turn around..no
Some things are better...some things are worse...as it is in life..change is inevitable...deal with it

Well to answer your question - How hard would it but to make an "old school" server?

Well EAMythic has given this answer on several occassions, and before the formation of EAMythic. EA addressed the issue.

Their answer(s) has been over the years that :

1) the original source for a old school server is gone : only the code that is on the servers know exists, when they move out to california, they moved the servers and started patching them. To keep the game servers going without shutting down they just moved the primary servers, the backup were left to be moved at a later date. Then either the backups were lost/erased/destroyed I do not remember which exactly but since there had been several patches since the move, this meant there were no more "originals" to reload from. They just made back up of the current servers and went on.

2) Even if they could find an original source there are not enough programers left from the original dev team to understand parts of the code (apparently they did not make good notes in the code)

3) It would use up too many resources to maintain this single shard because it would have to be coded separately from the other production shards. It would even have to be coded differently from seige/mugen.

4) They bring up that question of what would constitute a "old school" shard?
Would it be pre-trammel, pre-pub 25, pre-pub 16, pre-AoS? The way EAMythic looks at it one mans classic shard is different from someone else.

Those are the main reasons that have been given over the years.

Their policy is not going to change.

I do not agree with them, but I am just laying out their reasons/excuses.

But the good old days of UO, were not so old nor so good. But I can only speak for myself. I was not there for the initial launch, but I did get in a few months later.

I neverminded being hunted by other players, at least not on my mage or my warrior. Now I did mind being hunted on my miner, but I learned to be paraniod about it, and protected myself. I got really good at getting away since this was in the time before bags of sending! for any new players reading this.

In todays UO, I still mine in fel, totally naked, carry enough shovels to use up 5 charges on a bag of sending, so if I am killed I am not out much.

But there were times back then that I just wanted to login and go kill some monsters (to relax from work) and it did get really old when you are down in a dungeon just bashing away. then you hear some other people ride up, now usually I would have just recalled out, but sometimes depending on the spawn it was not possible. Then you see 4+ people just coming in, no words but corp por. Then they talk smack about how you suck after eating 4 corp pors. That does get old. But I could get by.

Also I lived near a player town (Red Dragon City) I was not actually in the so called "city limits" but a few screens over, I got to know those players quite well, we became good neighbors, heck I even help train new players in their guild, even though I was not in it. So there was a community there and at other places on the shard. This is what made UO great.

I was planning to stay in fel, where I started, I did ok. I had no plans to move to trammel. Why? because I heard more trash talk over there then I ever heard in fel.(this was shortly after the creation of "Its not a mirror" trammel. Well lets just say that it was a very interesting time for UO, the shard was in chaos, people trying to move entire communities over to trammel, other people trying to get there old housing spots, or killing them for their goods as they tried to move. Plus the shard reverts, priceless.

Finally what pushed me over the edge? To move to trammel, A guild of reds had bought out the 7/8 houses directly to the south of me. One day I met the leader of this guild (angelfire,angelsomething), He stepped up onto my front steps and waited. At the time I was login with my blacksmith, figured he might want to do business, I was getting ready to restock my vendor. I had a minor rep on my shard of making very good weapons and stocking bone armor suits (sighs for the days of a blacksmith being relavent).

I invited him in. His first question to me - you are not scared cause I am red? I replied Good sire, I know not your intentions, nor your race, care to do business? (I always try to play in character, and I never judge reds just because they were reds as long as they had never wronged my characters I treated them as a law abiding citizens).

He laughed about this and called me crazy. Said he want to buy my house. I told him I had been here for awhile and it was not for sale. Then he made threats, and curses and told me, he and his guild would make me pay. They needed my house (I guess I was the last one on the block{actually a cluster of about 15 houses various sizes} to not sell to them)

I told him politely he could go jump rope. He left, I thought nothing more of it. Over the next few months, they laid seige to my house, every character, everytime I login, they were there, to attack me everytime I left my house. Eventually I go tried of the constant battle, I won some, I lost some but I could not go about my business that I wanted to do. I most say that this guild were not asses about it. They never talked smack, they just killed me every chance they got, all within the rules. Finally we reach a deal and I moved to my current house (which this guild bought and turned over to me before I gave them my house plus 2 million in my pocket for my troubles.)

So my last few months on fel really soured my feelings to this facet. Although there are plenty of asses on the trammel side.

Another point vets like to bring up is that the were not as many gankings as people like to state. Well anyone that talks like that as far as I am concerned was just on the giving side of the ganks. Heck, I ganked reds on my bounty hunter. I can count the times on one hand were I was engaged in a pk attack on my characters one on one. Usually it was packs and nothings really changed since those times.

I still get caught out in fel gathering resources from time to time. What irks me now is that I do not even get looted (at least back when there was just fel they would take my ingots)

Case in point last week I was out getting frostwood, well I heard people coming, hit the wrong buttong, but at least I got the frostwood to the bank. Ended up taking a dirt nap, no big deal if they loot me they would have got a bag of sending and a axe. So I did what I always do, I give those 3 brave souls that killed me, a murder count. Its just my sop, kill me on my non-combat characters get a count, take on my fighters when I am in fel, I do not give counts.

Usually I do not stick around and I go get rez at the nearest healer/shrine. But this time one of them spirit spoke asking me if I wanted a rez, I have not taken a rez from anyone in fel for years, heck I have not been asked by a pk if I wanted a rez in years. The reason they rezd me? They all wanted to know why I gave them all counts, cause when I did 2 out of the 3 went red. I laughed my ass off at them, tired to explain. I got killed again and they talked even more smack. They got another count. First they complain that I had nothing on me to loot, then they complained about getting a murder count. Crazy just crazy.

Anyway I think that EA really went wrong when they split the facets, not the fact that they split them but how it was implemented.

IMO what should have happened is that the facet we know as trammel should have been fel and the facet know as fel should have been trammel. This would have left all the player built cities/communities intact for the most part and all the reds and anyone else that wanted to go could have go. Heck it could have been explained better then it was. Something to the effect that Lord British was banning all criminals and other shady person to a completely lawless land to survive as they saw fit.

With the player towns/communities mostly intact, I think UO would have not lost as many players as they have. There would not have been as much upheavel as there was on all the shards.

We all know that the developers have the ability to turn things off in the game... they show it or say it constantly in patches to the servers... added such and such but is not live or not turned on yet...

With mods on weapons just turn off everything except for damage increase.. on armors turn off everything except for defence chance increase...

one skill would need to be altered to work like it once did.. magic resist... turn everything skill and special related off that came with AOS and after......

they have numerous test shards sitting around.. think they had 5 or 6 at one point... just throw the altered code on it and let it run for 6 months or a year and see how it goes....

least then the players that dream of the good old days would get a chance to taste it a bit again.... wont be exact but enough to show if history would repeat


EDIT: obvious it could contain the new land masses or they could not have malas, Ilsh or tokuno if they wanted it that way...

I basically agree with Warsong's sentiment's. RPers were fleeing UO because of the non-stop PKing, those were the same people that were the force behind the player-run events, player-run towns. And the old lands should definately been setup as Trammel, I think that the biggest mistake Origin/EA ever made with UO.

Also personally, I just don't see folks leaving free shards (some of which are run very nicely) to come back to a pay to play situation. Human nature says if I can get it for free, why pay.

IMHO, of course.

Oh and yeah I been playing since beta in August 1997 with no breaks. Well actually a coup;le of weeks off from beta end till I got my collectors edition of the game.

It's always interesting to see what former UO players have to say about UO... a significant change of pace from all the glitter spoken by current players (and yes, in some ways even the complainers). With that said, all I can say about "old UO", despite not having been there though having experienced it (pre-Trammel) in slightly altered forms, is that it had it's good side and it's bad side, and over time these good attributes were exchanged for different good attributes (though you won't hear about them from me) and it's bad attributes were exchanged for different bad attributes.

As far as legacy shards are concerned, it's possible. If a community of devoted fans can recreate old UO, so too can a large company like EA, no matter what they say. Should they, though? I say no. UO already has everything it needs to be great.

I've come to believe that at this point, there's no way to truly restore the "old glory", but I firmly believe that if people would understand the value that a complex, in-depth, open, immersive and dynamic world has on a community, they maybe... possibly.... conceivably..... UO could regain it's immersiveness and open new doors to smarter PvM, challenging PvP among other things that would really be the foundation for better communities; and that is the ultimate focus.

I do not disagree with you ziggy,

They could/can/have done something like that.

I was just trying to list all the reasons that I recall EAMythic giving over the years as to why a "old school/classic" server is not going to happen.

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they have numerous test shards sitting around.. think they had 5 or 6 at one point... just throw the altered code on it and let it run for 6 months or a year and see how it goes....
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And if they did something like you suggested above? If they just let it run? Could you hear the screams from people if it was not updated/patched/new pixel crack added? Just asking.

Silverfoot, thanks for agreeing with me and if you read my post, thanks.
I had not realized I ran on for so long. But once I got up on the old soapbox, the letters kind of flew off my fingers...

updates for what? folks claim they want the old UO... so they need to live it... say also remove skill and stat locks while they are at it...remove pet bonding and obviously insurance...

if its done with all the current land masses... what else is needed for content? if its the same server code we have now with just the properties Ive said above turned off... no new bugs outside of whats there....

Folks want a classic... so they claim... EA should give it too them so they will shut up about how much better it was back then... let them see pking go unchecked. let them see ya cant do jack with out someone messing with you in one way or another...it would take a bit of time but not much Im thinking for folks on such a shard to start bailing back to their "Home" shards...

Look I will try to give you an example,

Lets say they do what you wish - presto - One classic server -(not going to get into what version)

It still needs to be maintained/patched - not for the new skills/abilities you are right.

But people would still want things like the valentine day cards, christmas gifts,
the halloween events, treasures of tokuno etc... you know the things that do not change the "old school" mechanics/game play just things people have gotten use too and are quite fun, well received.

Also they would still have to maintain it with updates to repair bugs that were present back then, some of those bugs are still with us today. Also optimized the server so it runs as well as possible. There is quite a bit of work behind the screen so to speak, that we as players never see that allows us to log in and play on the server. So there would have to be assigned staff that know the quirks of the server, for the lack of a better term, to keep it up and running.

I do not disagree with you, I think a "classic" server could be done. But I know it will not be do. I am not advocating a "classic" server I never have.

Question why give a "classic" shard such things as the treasures of tukuno? I can see the cards and pumpkins. At best there traded or used for deco. But the treasures would bring "items" back into the game

Vepl

I was just trying to point out that people are going to want things/events that were not around during the "classic" times. That does not change game play.

If you want to pick over the tot event - I would put it in like this, the decor items would be available only - no new weapons, no weapons for turned in minor, just the decro majors.

I was just trying to address ziggy's question what would have to be updated/maintained.

Besides how ever you define "classic" you are going to have items in the game anyway. Even if its a supremely accurate silver heavy crossbow of vanquishing.
It just about the way it is stated now.