The Beauty of Playing on UOSA - A Love Story

[Pixelclicker]

This is mainly for anyone who's starting to get the UO bug again and is reading our forums deciding which freeshard will give them the most fun. I hope after reading this you'll give this shard a try, I think it's the closest approximation of old-school UO you'll find, and I've played OSI (97-2000), IPY (until it died), and Divinity (quit before it died) before coming here.

After playing here for a few months, I realize that the thing that UOSA has that the others did not is its static ruleset. Everyone else tried to "fix" this game by tweaking PvP, PvM, adding something here, taking away something else there, etc. The end result was that they all failed.

At first, I thought it was a little nearsighted to arbitrarily fix the game at a single publish point. After playing for a while, however, I realized that while this excludes some very nice features that came out later (cut all bandages at once, updated crafting menus/craft last object, etc.) and leaves in some suboptimal features, this WAS the most fun period in UO's history and at least you know about the good, the bad, and the ugly so you can play accordingly.

When the ruleset constantly changes, you get some people who are completely pissed off and quit immediately because their playstyle (based on the old rules) just got nerfed. The next change alienates another group. Soon, all that is left is a dwindling group of whiners that weren't going to be happy with anything anyway.

This, in part, contributed to decreased population (and probably the ultimate downfall) of IPY and Divinity, and will eventually be the downfall of IPY2. Here on UOSA, you can read the guides and help on the forums, look at the Wiki pages, and know that that's exactly how it will be in 3 months. Contrast that with IPY2's Frankenstein of a game - paladins, detectives, ungodly slow skill gain, and you KNOW it's going to have to change drastically (and keep changing) just to compensate for its flaws. Eventually, everyone will get pissed off trying to keep up - including you.

In any case, when you DO get fed up - come here. UO is always more fun with more people playing in the sandbox, and UOSA has the best, most stable ruleset.

[Zelek Uther]

I agree, UOSA is a wonderful shard!

My 2c worth on a couple of points that were raised:

* Cutting bandages one at a time. I'm glad that we have this era-accurate feature. It means that making bandages is a little more difficult, which enhances the market for bandages. Players that can't be bothered cutting their own bandages can buy them from a player vendor.

* Craft last object. We have this for Tinkering. Double click on your tool kit, it asks "What materials would you like to work with?", if you target the tool kit it will craft the last object crafted. Also works for Alchemy, if you target the Mortar it grinds the same potion that was last created. I don't think we have this for Blacksmithy, and I'm not sure about the other crafting skills.

[Zelek Uther]

I reckon the reason why UOSA is so good is because of Good Administration:

1) Objective, non-partisan (i.e. caters to all play styles), passionate about the T2A Era.

2) Fixed target date: November 23rd, 1999, the date of Publish 1. This is the OPs point, and I agree.

3) Can't buy in-game stuffs for real life money.

... and these have enabled our great community!

I've added a couple more points here to compliment the OP. Let's have some other people add their thoughts as to why our shard is so great!

[Pac]

Yeah I like that bandages cut one at a time too, it makes it slightly more satisfying when I steal them.

[Mens Rea]

Yes

[Pixelclicker]

I agree, UOSA is a wonderful shard!
* Craft last object. We have this for Tinkering. Double click on your tool kit, it asks "What materials would you like to work with?", if you target the tool kit it will craft the last object crafted. Also works for Alchemy, if you target the Mortar it grinds the same potion that was last created. I don't think we have this for Blacksmithy, and I'm not sure about the other crafting skills.

You know, I completely forgot about this. Thanks!

[darkfiend]

Great post!

Addition:
Like the bandages comments above, runebooks not being blessed also makes selling runes on a vendor possible.