Forgot about the decor items from ToT . Good point

Vepl

Even if it's a "classic", they will be paying and therefore expect, additions, new content in some shape or form. I just don't see the company providing the resources. They have a hard enough time with the differences on Siege/Mugen vs regular shards. I just don't see it ever happening, besides I prefer the resources they do have be used for improvement of the game in it's current form. *shrugs*

I would like them to admit they screwed up royaly then revert to Pre AoS then add the AoS changes that they poorly implemented and start over from there. I loved the idea of AoS but why they had to change the WHOLE game system?!?! (Insurance, weapon stats etc). Stupid. They shot themselves in the foot. Seems like this whole thing was just a bad beta since AoS. In my opinion the game is dead and so I move on.

Edit: But I love these boards and I do hope one day that the people who run UO realize what they have in their hands.

It's all well and good to be nostalgic and wish you were 13 years old again, but at the time, being 13 was a pain in the butt and you always wished you were grown up.

It's the same with UO. I played before Trammel and I quit UO because of that fact. After 7 years, I came back and I love it how it is now. It is so much better in so many other ways that it makes the "carebearification" of some aspects acceptable.

Remember when we could only have 10 or so specific house templates, most of which were small, single room houses? And even then, it took you weeks to save up the gold you needed to buy one. Oh, and that's if you could find a free spot somewhere in the world. You want a tower? Forget it.
Remember when there were no cool looking, rare deco items? Remember when the only mounts in the game were plain, normal horses? Remember when there were no runebooks? No Chiv, necro, bushido, spellweaving, ninjitsu; and spirit speak only let you talk to ghosts?

Instead of being nostalgic and wishing for the old days, try to remember some of the bad days you had as well as the good ones; the good changes as well as the bad. It'll balance out your memories and make you miss the "old days" a bit less I think and enjoy your present days.

Honestly.. what is the theme of the classic shard posts?

1: no insurance
2: pre AOS aka no mods out side of the damage increase on weapons and the defence bit on armor... dex penalty with plate (offset by higher defence)
3: no specials
4: 7x GM characters being viable
5: crafting being of some use
6: can pvp with the gear you can make or loot off of mobs or other players or even buy from the npc vendors...
7: a simple world (no number crunching with the mods)


The shard would be just for a long term test to see if the player base would actually support such a shard/s so the addition of content isnt a issue from that purpose....

The earlier in the time period of UO the better....with it being non consensual everywhere one would for a period still beable to avoid it yet still have this risk folks claim all the time about that was part of the magic of UO...

No need to ponder what makes a classic shard... just turn off everything that came in the game from P16 forward...(think thats the one that intro'd power scrolls and bonding for pets and the control slots)

And let it run for a year and at the end of that year... take the data and see if it would cover the cost of the shard .. as in adding 3 perm ones.. one on the west coast, one central and one on the east coast.... prolly do a test for the asian market also to see how they react to it ...

Point Im getting at is that it is real easy to say over and over you want want its needed its wanted I'd play it , it would bring back players ect ... but to put those words into action is a different matter....

I really dont understand why all the we want a classic shard folks dont all get together on a central shard and commit to doing what they can to show EA that there is a market for it... it be simple to cast away the arties and new skills and just play with npc bought gear and the classic skills... it wouldnt be perfect but it would show EA that they are willing to walk the talk...

And yes there would be folks that would be pains and not follow the rest and they could police those that chose to screw with the community...which is another supposed view of the classic period of UO anyways...

Again you state its easy,

And you list 7 things which I read as your version of a classic shard? Yes?

The problem comes in with again what is the right set to make up a classic shard.

Heck I know a few people that still tell me to this day that it should just be the original game world as released (ie no t2a and beyond, because t2a is a poorly design area).

You are never going to get any type of agreement of what should be in or out. They you are going to get people that say yeah I want it the way it used to be but, I want bags of sending, my sixth character slot, insert whatever feature you like added since pub 16, etc...

Just realize its not going to happen. If you wish to experiment with this type of shard, well there are quite a few non-approved EAMythic shards running out there.

Thats the closest you are going to get to a classic shard.

The way people have voted for a classic shard, is the simple fact that total subscription numbers have declined steadly over the past few years. Every player that leaves is because of some problem they perceive with the game. Changes that they do not see as positive, or advancing their game play. So they vote with their wallet.

Im saying logic says its easy due to the fact EA can turn off features and turn them on...

Im saying its easy just to Do it for a test without dealing with new content or which phase of UO to do... just do it.. pick a point and set up a long term test shard.....

I dont care to relive the past... I dont see the good times outweighing the bad times.. I believe people do not change that much and would return to the path that messed up the ONE land apsect that was Sosaria

There is a single mom with a 15 year old son and a 14 year old son that have their own shard set up and running... they used the 9th anny disc and they have it set up like the old days ... mechanics wise...

If they can do it with the tools out there I see no reason why EA cant outside EA does not wish to risk the being shown that there is a very large following of the old style and dare not care to have the fact that maybe they have screwed up in the path they have taken...

I honestly could care less outside of EA checking it out.... letting the players that clamor for a classic to put up or shut up .....

Money is money no matter the source it comes from.. and if they could increase the revenue generated by UO thru another specialty set of shards or one shard why not do it??

Anyways... the "what if" is always a interesting thing to discuss

Everyones making all these great posts, I feel like I should contribute more. Sadly, I'm at work right now and unable to type much.

I think the main thing that changed which differentiates old school uo from new uo, is the element based resist system, and the magic find system. When these were implemented, it became necessary to have good gear to compete.

These things are what made insurance popular. If you didn't need good gear to compete in the world, why would you even need insurance?

If they simply made a shard with old style item properties (items had NO properties back in the day, weapons had damage and speed and armor had armor rating) and old style magic resist, then I would be satisfied.

I'm sure theres many things I missed, I cant really think of them all right now.



However, to put my statement into simple terms. I think UO took a turn for the worst when it was morphed from a skill based game, to an item based game.

Once top end gear became necessary for survival, UO was a different game.

It wouldn't be hard to put a poll up on the UO site, and run a small advertisement scheme. If EA decided to try an old style shard, I'm sure most people would be willing to comprimise. For me, anything before Trammel would be fine.

I bet 90% of the people who want an old school shard would agree with me. Any point before trammel would be optimal. I would love if it was right before trammel, but I would be willing to accept if it was 2 years before trammel, or even 3 months after release.

I think it would be fairly easy to make a classic shard.

I know ziggy thinks it would be easy, and I can add brett to the list.

Heck we could get everyone here on UOForums to log in to this thread and all agree that it would be easy to make a classic shard.

But the people that you have to actually convince are the people over at EAMythic. Its been stated by them that there are no plans to devote the time, resources, money to provide a classic shard. And they have given many reasons over the years. Which I sited in one of my previous posts.

So the only thing that we can do here is play the what if game. If EAMythic does not want to lay out the resources (even if they could make those back and some, maybe)

We and more importantly EAMythic has to realize that UO has become a niche game. Why they (EAMythic) deny this is beyond me.

Do any of you posters here on UOForums actually believe that KR is going to bring back 150,000+ players to this game? So that we surpass the peak of the subscription base which is the last number that EAMythic actually confirmed (250, 000 accounts). I think not.

There are too many better looking choices out there. Personally I play a game based on it overall gameplay not by how it looks. Thats why I have paid for this game for the last nearly 10 years. Heck I still have some of my older console systems hooked up (turbo-grafx 16, sega master system and others) but I am a game junkie, but there are some great games on these systems. Its not the graphics, its the underlying game systems.

UO needs to return to this and finish systems started and not completed.
Virtues anyone? Factions, we could all add a few to the list.

And how about those systems completed and then discarded. Like the treasures of tokuno?

I hear you say, but dude that was a limited time only event. Yes it was, but if you go back and read the reasons behind them putting the system in was to test a way to reward players by putting items directly into their backpack for accomplishing certain goals. And testing the trade in system with the imperial official in zento.

In the case of the ToT it was slaying a certain number of creatures to get a pay off. I think this system was successful. Why was this system not rolled out in some permanent type way as intially planned? Why create something then never use it?

Heck just turn the damn ToT event back on, I have no idea what the drop rate was for the initial event was. But heck just lower the drop rate from (1 in every 100 if that was the rate) to something like 1 in 500 or 1000. So that you give people a reason to go to the islands, I rarely see people there anymore unless they live in the islands or I see a few in the bottom of the fandancer dojo or outside the citadel.

Oh but then my minors are gonna drop in price. Big deal how much have you made off the minors/majors. Heck by turning down the drop rate, you could even rotate the majors out giving new majors and giving you a new market to exploit. Heck just add in some of the dye colors back. Make the trade in for the dyes, 50 or 75 minors, Heck this alone would keep the price on minors fairly high.

Heck there are plenty of systems that can be tweaked/added to/completed that would make people log in more and give more choices to people.

Heck I am guessing there are more ideas to improve UO, whatever works to keep people interested. I am more than happy to discuss the what ifs.

UO is one of the few games that gives me the freedom to go anywhere, do anything, with anyone/solo, at anytime. And its why I have stayed so long.