Just read this ... It'll make sense

[IM FKING CRAZY]

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.

Did you?

[Hemperor]

Not with my first two characters..months ago when I came here.

The whole macroing scene was completely new to me, only playing sphere shards in the past.

At this point, for pvpers, it's basically silly not to...you are putting yourself at a severe disadvantage if you don't.

[chumbucket]

The only feasible things that could be done to help the shard are:

1. Donate: Help keep the shard stable, fast, etc.

2. Promote: Tell others.

3. Organize: Band together to help new players. I know there are guilds for new players, but they don't have a big presence. Often, I find new players who have no idea that there are guilds that are dedicated to helping them.

4. Do Stuff: Quit just hunting monsters alone, or LEET PVP OMG. Do things that are interesting, fun, involve lots of other people. Point out that you are doing so on the forums. Set up events. Don't rely on Derrick to spoonfeed you safe events with trophies.

5. Sacrifice: Quit making your own goods, mining your own ingots, etc. If you have excess gold, spend it in ways that help new players.

6. Get more people in IRC: IRC helps the shard, but only a fraction of the players online are using it. It would also help if IRC wasn't a place for the LEET PVPERS to come trash talk each other constantly.

[BlackFoot]

even removing afk macroing i think you are underestimating the amount of knowledge players have now. People would still 7x their chars.

[Jaster]

As far IRC being used to help players and promote activities, that is what the forums are for ... a guide to players, not a step by step process to the easy-way out. If everyone learns the easy-way out, they will never experience the game play themselves ... thus, afk macroing.

IRC should be used for help/support that ingame support from admin as well as players throughout the land, and also the guides/wiki on the website can't provide. Right now it is used as GPS, news, "pvp" [1 players text vs another players text] ... as well as other nonsense.

My idea was to leave it for help/support, and to allow guilds and players to set up their own channels[which they already can], to organize group activities and communicate amongst one another, not amongst the entire shard.

Example: If there is pvp in destard, instead of spamming IRC with pvp in destard, players should be looking for it themselves if they want to fight, not waiting like a fire fighter for a fire alarm to go off or to see smoke. Send a player to brit bank or the popular bank ... "pks at destard, come help" .... this is where the noto-pks come into play that we don't have on this shard.

[Hemperor]

even removing afk macroing i think you are underestimating the amount of knowledge players have now. People would still 7x their chars.

of course, but they would do it through playing actively, rather than sitting afk at the bank or in their house.

[RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR]

Not with my first two characters..months ago when I came here.

The whole macroing scene was completely new to me, only playing sphere shards in the past.

At this point, for pvpers, it's basically silly not to...you are putting yourself at a severe disadvantage if you don't.

Hemps right, if your running around on 1 client fighting zombies and you know almost everyone else is a 7xer, you just feel like you're wasting your time on something that is easier to attain with macroing.

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.

Isn't there some kind of 8x8 rule that prevents macroing unless your on a boat, that way you could just monitor oceans, I don't if its in era, I just want to throw that out there. I already know that this shard will almost certainly never have a policy against macroing in the near future.

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.

I have to agree with Dr.Faustus on this one.

A wipe is what's truly needed if you want to find true accuracy, but I wouldn't even consider that until this shard has been deemed "era accurate"

But once again this will almost certainly not happen in the near future.

The only feasible things that could be done to help the shard are:

1. Donate: Help keep the shard stable, fast, etc.

2. Promote: Tell others.

3. Organize: Band together to help new players. I know there are guilds for new players, but they don't have a big presence. Often, I find new players who have no idea that there are guilds that are dedicated to helping them.

4. Do Stuff: Quit just hunting monsters alone, or LEET PVP OMG. Do things that are interesting, fun, involve lots of other people. Point out that you are doing so on the forums. Set up events. Don't rely on Derrick to spoonfeed you safe events with trophies.

5. Sacrifice: Quit making your own goods, mining your own ingots, etc. If you have excess gold, spend it in ways that help new players.

6. Get more people in IRC: IRC helps the shard, but only a fraction of the players online are using it. It would also help if IRC wasn't a place for the LEET PVPERS to come trash talk each other constantly.

Chum is right, more people in IRC would be better, if people saw that there were a lot more active players on, it would inspire them to hop on, I think it's a lot better than removing IRC and blind folding everyone to whether or not theres action or not, people would just log on, see that no ones on and leave.

Also I think we should remove events all together, there stupid and out of era, player run events a lot more accurate and they don't take you to trammel, BUT there should still be trophies for these events because people like rewards.

Anyways removing macroing at this point will accomplish nothing except irritate new players, limiting 1 account per IP would solve all the multiclienting problems but so far people believe its an impossible idea.