Just read this ... It'll make sense

[RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR]

I deleted all my characters the other day, they all felt kind of pointless to me and I was sick of macroing and multiclienting, I'm just going to use 1 character.

Frankly it makes the game feel more like a MMORPG, and with multiclienting and macroing its more like some weird combination of a RTS and a RPG, I think I'd rather play DOTA, or some fun single player game, and save myself the worry of checking up on pointless macros.

EDIT: The reason macroing was so cool on OSI, was because everyone else was training up there characters and it gave you such a advantage, now that everyone is macroing its just stupid.

(Not bashing the shard just giving my opinion.)

[DrFaustus]

Ohhhh you play DOTA?

[RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR]

I used to play it a lot, I reformatted so I would have to find my old cd keys, but yeah DOTA is quite a bit of fun, I just did TDA I never went into any leagues or anything.

[Hemperor]

I think macroing should go out the window..sure some of us are already ahead but it's something that would take maybe a month to adjust to...vets that really care could make new characters as well and all band together.

I doubt very many, if any at all, would quit over this...since when was this shard about appealing to people when it comes to decisions of the shard, rather than just going with the ACCURATE choice?

[DrFaustus]

I used to play it a lot, I reformatted so I would have to find my old cd keys, but yeah DOTA is quite a bit of fun, I just did TDA I never went into any leagues or anything.

If you ever want to TDA again let me know...I can vouch you for a game or two. TDA is a good waste of time, but often provides a glint of fun in my otherwise tedious day(s).

[Chaos]

I'll sum up this longwinded post, as Im sure very few of you are still reading by now =D. These are just a collection of ideas I have had over this last week. But to conclude Ill say this:

If we want an accurate shard some major changes have to take place. If we want to do this in a way that will help the shard grow and not hinder the playerbase it will have to be done in a positive way to help stimulate the shard rather than hurt it by simply changing major aspects of the shard.

Ty for the post all very valid points and well said .. I myself never played OSI but I've played many shards, with many diff. rules. Though I do use two clients alot of the time .. I do watch my macros very close on another monitor .. something else that was rare back in that day .. ( I didn't have to play UO or OSI to know that .. I still worked on computers even gaming computers for the most part of that era didn't come with 2 graphics cards or duel cards) though many people could have very well had two computers and two phone lines (never played or payed OSI so not sure about paying for two accounts) but I did in that era have a "house line I could use" and a "Computer" line to use though only used house line at night .. still lived with mom

Anyways great post i agree that it might be the only way or force us from ourselfs and foster more guilds friendships of people in game not just irl.

[Tronica]

word of mouth

best thing for uo players

"yeh, playing this shard, its pretty good."

your m8's will be here soon.

i didn't know there was a crisis.

im able to find action often on this shard.

[RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR]

Tronica's right word of mouth is best, tell all your old UO buddies to play this shard, the more players there are the more players will come.

[BlackFoot]

Macroing would take an incredible amount of staff time to monitor. Volunteers to monitor macroers would have no way to prove afkness to staff if they acused anyone. I dont see it being feasible.

[son]

What the hell are you guys talking about.

1st Point. IRC is imperative for this shard. Here is a scenario:

Newb joins channel, hey I am new, need help. Where do I dl the client? Etc. Okay, now how do I make gold? How do I make razor macros?

I help newbies with these questions on a daily basis, in hopes that they will not be discouraged of the walls they will hit as new players. All via IRC. I often give them gold too. If not via IRC, how would I connect with these new players? Sitting at wbb? I often answer questions while macroing in game, or not even logged in.

Additionally IRC is great for finding quarrels on slow days. "X is killing Y at Z guys" or "OMG IDOC AT BLAH" or "Alcon is a moron".


Finally, making drastic changes like not allowing macroing or reducing the number of accounts lower than was previously allowed is problematic to say the least. Policing macroing going to be difficult, as you will see an increase of easy UO as it is better for macroing and likely making "non afk" looking macros (since all macroing is illegal, might aswell use the best tool avail!). You will thus see more exploitation of resource gathering, because staff would be locked into looking for ALL afk macroers and not just ones grabbing resources.

What of the people who have 15 chars, most of which are fully developed? How do you reduce these to 1 account? I couldnt imagine having to figure out which chars to get rid off.

The only way you make these changes is by starting over. Setting a very specific date of acuracy, setting specific rules, and limiting clients to whatever is more reasonable. Changing rules that only dramatically affect new players will ruin the playerbase. Thus, you need an entire new server.

[Jaster]

What the hell are you guys talking about.

1st Point. IRC is imperative for this shard. Here is a scenario:

Newb joins channel, hey I am new, need help. Where do I dl the client? Etc. Okay, now how do I make gold? How do I make razor macros?

I help newbies with these questions on a daily basis, in hopes that they will not be discouraged of the walls they will hit as new players. All via IRC. I often give them gold too. If not via IRC, how would I connect with these new players? Sitting at wbb? I often answer questions while macroing in game, or not even logged in.

My suggestion was not to remove IRC entirely, only the general chat aspect of it. Help/Support would still be available if new players needed assistance. Guild/player run rooms would still be available, but wouldn't be moderated by staff, giving players a choice to use a room. Currently, if you aren't using IRC, you are at a disadvantage to knowing whats going on on the server. It shouldn't be that way.

Additionally IRC is great for finding quarrels on slow days. "X is killing Y at Z guys" or "OMG IDOC AT BLAH" or "Alcon is a moron".

This isn't something that only happens on slow days. It happens everyday and is the main cause of in game confrontation. IRC should not be the source of 2 or more players meeting up in game. This is why random action is so rare ... bc players are always jumping in irc before or after a fight gloating or hating about a fight. You take general chat irc away and people can't look in irc for action, they have to look in the game. Even if they spend 15 extra minutes in the game looking for action, better chance to find some randomly ... if everyone did this, and if they kept finding some, they'd spend more time looking when they wanted to play ... giving the shard more "visual activity".

[Hemperor]

Macroing would take an incredible amount of staff time to monitor. Volunteers to monitor macroers would have no way to prove afkness to staff if they acused anyone. I dont see it being feasible.

There are plenty of other shards that already have automated systems in place, I'm not sure of the specifics on them but I'm sure it is pretty possible.

It would also be accurate if you had to be caught by staff

[Derrick]

What a great thread.
I really appreciate every post in here, the points on all sides are very valid.
There's a few things within some of the suggestions that I'm pretty opposed to, while the intended outcome is good.

I don't ever want to do a shard wipe, there's many reasons for this, but Second Age is a living thing; what players have done here is incredible, the history, the items, the stories in forums, just take a look at the new player made UOSA museum. We've only been around for 16 months, but the amount of history and culture that's been built on Second Age is way more than the sum of the players online.

Changing player skills and stats on the assumption that they were just easily macroed up is a very bad idea in my very humble opinion. Not everyone just macros up their 7x character; and there are also crafters and other gophers that would be effected by this too. We treat the characters (including stats and skills) and their belongings (items)as "owned" by those players. We've never deleted a character, a house, or an item (that wasn't related to an expoilt), or a skillpoint.

I am in agreement that IRC is an essential part of the access to the community, and also a critical source of help for new guys. We simply do not have, and do not want to have the staff resources to answer every question via the in-game help system.

Solutions for serious problems that do not require staff to interfere with gameplay are always preferred over solutions that do of course. I agree that many of the possible solutions to the problems perceived above can be player solutions; but I also agree as stated a few times above that there are a Lot of players out in the world actually playing the game. I hesitate to agree that lack of people hanging around Brit bank is a sign of inactivity.

[Hemperor]

What a great thread.
I really appreciate every post in here, the points on all sides are very valid.
There's a few things within some of the suggestions that I'm pretty opposed to, while the intended outcome is good.

I don't ever want to do a shard wipe, there's many reasons for this, but Second Age is a living thing; what players have done here is incredible, the history, the items, the stories in forums, just take a look at the new player made UOSA museum. We've only been around for 16 months, but the amount of history and culture that's been built on Second Age is way more than the sum of the players online.

Changing player skills and stats on the assumption that they were just easily macroed up is a very bad idea in my very humble opinion. Not everyone just macros up their 7x character; and there are also crafters and other gophers that would be effected by this too. We treat the characters (including stats and skills) and their belongings (items)as "owned" by those players. We've never deleted a character, a house, or an item (that wasn't related to an expoilt), or a skillpoint.

I am in agreement that IRC is an essential part of the access to the community, and also a critical source of help for new guys. We simply do not have, and do not want to have the staff resources to answer every question via the in-game help system.

Solutions for serious problems that do not require staff to interfere with gameplay are always preferred over solutions that do of course. I agree that many of the possible solutions to the problems perceived above can be player solutions; but I also agree as stated a few times above that there are a Lot of players out in the world actually playing the game. I hesitate to agree that lack of people hanging around Brit bank is a sign of inactivity.

I think you missed the major points on this one... it has nothing to do with activity at WBB.

It has everything to do with players macroing up until they have at least 600 points before actually doing anything...although some don't do this, I'm willing to bet its at least 90% that do.

[Teknix]

Macroing would take an incredible amount of staff time to monitor. Volunteers to monitor macroers would have no way to prove afkness to staff if they acused anyone. I dont see it being feasible.